It is.  And to a degree, that way of thinking does serve helping to build the character - in Phases One and Two, Background and Rising Conflict.  It's when we hit Phases Three through Five that we need to condense our detail-oriented approach, boil the story down to its basics.<br/><br/>Here's a way of thinking about it.<br/><br/>For Phases One and Two, write as if you were building an RP character.<br/><br/>For Phases Three, Four, & Five, write as if you were selling a novel.