Thanks, Chase. Characters are grounded in emotional experiences, their personal history (everything that’s happened to them) and backstory (the specific dynamics which come into play in the story) chock full of them as memories, associations, triggers, and the like. So it’s no wonder your approach works for you — and I suspect many others as well — because it takes you directly to your characters which, as my OP suggests, is the best place to ground the story-crafting process.