I was writing a story about a bunch of talking puppets. In my story, there was a scene where the puppeteer first met his new puppet.
The puppeteer had a very passionate reaction upon seeing her, and he had to make great effort to contain his excitement, in case it should turn into an unwelcome accident. His hands were even trembling when he took her out from the box, careful not to drop or ‘hurt’ her.
What I mean by the bold part is that the puppeteer doesn't want to overreact, for the puppet requires delicate handling.
As you know, sometimes when people get too stoked up, they tend to lose a certain degree of control of their bodies, which may result in a hug that is too tight, or a kiss that is too slobbery, etc.
And this is roughly what I am trying to communicate in my sentence. The puppeteer doesn't want to break the puppet because he is too excited.
However, I am not sure whether my sentence successfully gets that across. I originally wanted to write this:
... in case it should lead to excessive movements.
But then I thought perhaps this doesn't sound natural? I looked up this collocation on Ngram, but it doesn't seem to be used in the context that I intended. Some of the examples are:
However, instead of a delayed sleep phase, he tended to wake up early, with excessive movements in sleep, and did not show any considerably longer sleep time on weekends or holidays.
"The last thing that young people need is to be priced out of the labor market by excessive movements in minimum wages," he said.
It seems that they focus more on the 'number' of movements or changes made, instead of the degree?
Is there any way to reframe my sentence to make it more understandable?
Anyway, eager to hear what you think.
