Storytellers Should Ban the Word 'Suddenly' to Preserve Genuine Surprise
Matthew Dicks · Matthew Dicks – Storytelling Mastery (EP.477) · Dec 15, 2025 · at 45:43
Storyteller Matthew Dicks discusses speech patterns and filler words that undermine effective storytelling on Capital Allocators.
0:00 / 0:22exact quote · 22.9s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“A word like suddenly, we should never use that word. I could have said I turn and suddenly I see Eric running across the kitchen, but suddenly is a word that never makes anything feel suddenly. It only signals that a surprise is about to happen. If I say I look outside and suddenly I've now spoiled the opportunity for surprise because I've indicated a surprise is here.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Matthew Dicks
Presenters Reliant on Slide Decks Should Stay Home and Practice
“If you need a deck, you're not telling a story. You shouldn't even be walking in the room if you need a deck. Stay home and practice. Turn it into a performance.”
Storytellers Should Avoid Heavy Descriptions to Reduce Listener Cognitive Load
“What storytellers should do is take the nouns or the locations that exist in your brain, and I leverage them on my behalf. I don't want to describe my classroom because that's time and that's cognitive load for you.”
Business Stories Begin With Words, Not Slide Decks
“Stories don't begin on slides. Stories begin with the words that we're going to speak or the words that are going to be on the page or some combination of the two. Slides should be used to support a story only when necessary. They should not be the story.”
Time Only Feels Fast Because People Forget Their Daily Experiences
“So when we talk about how time flies, it doesn't actually fly. That's just nonsense. What happens is it just gets forgotten. So we look at a full year, 365 days, and we reduce it to 50 days or 50 moments or 20 moments. That's why time feels like it flies.”