I hope the title is clear.
It's a problem I encounter everytime I'm writing a horror story or a short story where some suspense is needed.
I find myself using too much of "suddenly", "all of at once", "unexpectedly", at places where they all seem necessary.
So I don't know what's the solution. Rather than keep on using more synonyms or to learn to decrease the occurences of
The 'suddenness' should manifest in the emotion and reaction of the character, then the word becomes redundant.
I had the same problem with my debut novel. I did a ctrl+F once, and found 'suddenly' 11 times on one page! Now, if you do a Find and Replace with synonyms, you again may end up using a synonym multiple times across the novel when you do a ctrl+F in the end or during your final reviews. So how did I do it?
1. Check the context before replacing the word.
2. If no other word seems more appropriate, use that replacement say on the 5th page, and then all the way down on the 87th page. That way, readers will hardly notice you used this word at the start, and if it is the best fit, it will simply go with the flow. By the time readers reach the middle or the end, the story has developed so the use of a word multiple may even go un-noticed.
3. Simply dont use it. Really, remove the word and re-read and re-read. At one point it will seem apt not to use it at all. Once the pace of the novel is caught up, the reader expects things to happen 'suddenly' so ther is no longer a need to tell the reader that.
There are enough examples of good dialogue and prose to guide you.
You should read the best authors' of thrillers and horror stories.