When it comes to drama, a writer can get pretty frustrated.  You’re writing a sequence where the main character is close to dying, and you’re bored to death!  The words are dull and pace is slow.  You have a hard time finding the right words to describe what’s going on, and you can’t find the right balance between action and the thought and emotions of the characters.  All the words sound flat and boring.  So what do you do?

The truth is: nothing.  If the character is truly in danger and the reader really does care about them, you don’t need to write anything to make it dramatic.  The situation will be dramatic enough.  Trying to give it too much drama can shut the reader right off.  And the truth is, the reader will be so anxious to find out what happens, they’ll be merely skimming over the page, barely even reading the sentences you took such care to write.

Of course, build up is important.  How long and ‘large’ the build up varies in whether or not you want it to be a surprise.  There are many different ways to build up.  You could hint at nervousness and uneasiness in the character, such as saying, ‘The hairs on the back of his neck rose and he felt uneasy as he stepped inside’, or say something such as, ‘He was so engrossed in his book, Dan did not see the shadow that was following him from doorway to doorway.’  What you choose depends greatly on whether or not you want your character to know or suspect the harm about to befall him.  When you want it to be a surprise to even the reader, you have to word it in the right way so they feel the shock and not so they go, ‘Wait, huh?  Did he just get hurt?  Or not?’  They just got pulled out of the current and are rather confused.  So wording is important in that situation.