Having just received some more great crit from a crit buddy *waves* there’s a word on my mind. I do tend to say people “jump” in surprise a lot. I think it’s a valid word, but I probably do need to vary it.
The problem is I’m not exactly sure what other words I can use. I don’t like “flinched” in situations of surprise, that’s more of a sick shock/pain word to me. Does anyone have any good suggestions? This is definitely a weakness of mine.
On the flipside, I’ve had critiques before from others that question that usage of the word “jump” altogether. I thought it was fairly well-known. Any comments on that?
My monthly goals are coming along nicely; I only need to actually update my word bars. 
I need to think of a better system of tracking my total words. Or at least remember to write it down every time after I work.
January 27th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Ooh, good question. Let’s see… there’s “he started”, but that can sound slightly old-fashioned and may be confusing in some situations (”started what?”).
Then, if it’s unpleasant surprise, there’s “twitched” and “winced”. You could also have the character “jolt” or “jerk” to emphasise sudden movement, or “quiver” or “recoil” if it’s an unpleasant touch.
You can also use “startle” as an objectless verb meaning the same as “start”. Thesaurus.com gives me “jounce”, a nice word which means the same as “jolt”.
If you want to add an involuntary noise of some kind, we could add a “gasp”, “sharp intake of breath”, “hiss”, “squeak”, “peep” and so on.
I think your choice of verbs can help a lot in defining your character. There are some characters I would let squeak where others would jolt.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Great list of words, thank you! I don’t know why I have such trouble with things like that, but I’m writing a pretty twitchy character at the moment, and I do need to vary her jumping.