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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/3697
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

There are a few different effects related to the phrase "suddenly"

1) When describing how someone else perceived something or reacted

> I believe that towards morning he attempted to commit suicide but did not succeed. He remained locked up till midday—and then **suddenly** he ran to the authorities. He is said to have crawled on his knees, to have sobbed and shrieked, to have kissed the floor crying out that he was not worthy to kiss the boots of the officials standing before him.

Here there is no problem, the narrator is not asking too much from the reader and the overall effect is not of grand surprise or revelation. If the protagonist did other things in a sudden way, narrator would naturally report on them without disturbing the flow (other phrases _could_, if appropriate, be used to avoid repetition: 'out of nowhere', 'unexpectedly', 'abruptly' and so on).

2) When you are aiming for an effect of a surprise

In this case using the term "suddenly" can work, but heavy lifting is done by the storyline.

For example consider

> Suddenly she lifted her face, and her eyes flashed.

which can work, but requires a leap of imagination from the reader, so it is not effortless. However, the quote is incomplete, compare to the effect in the context

> There was silence for a moment, during which Mrs. Goyte remained with her head dropped, sinister and abstracted. Suddenly she lifted her face, and her eyes flashed.

which I feel works rather well. Another famous example is found in this passage:

> Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Zhuangzi.  
> Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuangzi. But he didn't know if he was Zhuangzi who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi.  
> Between Zhuangzi and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things. (2, tr. Burton Watson 1968:49)

To me, this might be the finest example of them all, and here I hope you share my view that the word "suddenly" does not substantially add to the surprise or the revelation of the idea presented. It is an objective (for the narrator) description of an action - he woke up [quickly and unexpectedly](http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/suddenly?view=uk). Only the next sentence brings the actual revelation, the surprise: the two realities feel equally plausible! The effect of the surprise is somewhat supported by the context of the sudden awakening, but the main effect is achieved through the story.

My general feeling is that "suddenly" has no problems in the first case and in the second case it is not effective by itself.

So, if you want to change the scene instantly it is justified, but it is not essential - any number of words will do as the actual change of the scene is done through dialogs and descriptions that will follow it. Here it is mainly a signal that a change will occur.

Surprising the reader usually has nothing to do with such signal, and actually the signal might take away from the surprise - as it does serve as a warning. Zhuangzi's dream does not suffer from this problem, because here it is not used to surprise the reader by itself.

Original score: 2