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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47717
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

What I suspect you're really asking here is, "How do I make scenes involving this character _feel_ adrenaline-filled and emotional?" To answer that question, you have to realize that portraying this character's emotions is only half the problem; the other half is the lack of **stakes.**

It's one thing for your character to want to prevent injury or death to another person, which is a noble goal. Making the reader feel the same rush the character does is another thing entirely; they'll be spending the scene thinking, "Well, if it goes wrong, just reverse it and try again." Whether or not your character succeeds is essentially a foregone conclusion; eventually, she will. What you need to do is give both your character and the reader a reason to _want_ her to succeed, on _this_ try.

Maybe this ability can only be used a certain number of times per day? Maybe the fewer changes she makes the second time around, the harder it is to make changes on the third? When there's very little at stake, there's very little reason for the reader to care what happens. Even if your character doesn't need to fear her own death, she needs to be risking something when she jumps into a situation.

Original score: 12