The difference between good writing and ho hum writing is in the details–not the character details per say, but the moments a character has an introspection, and they create a world view that the reader can identify with. It is through the eyes of the characters that we see the world and the story and even the characters themselves develop and unfold. I tend to forget this important slice of minutiae on the first pass of a story. It is usually during reading, Minecraft meditations, moments of silent reflection on the characters, etc that I find myself remembering to include the tidbits and then quickly scribbling them down on my phone in the form of a text. This is why writers ought to carry notebooks. This is why writers need to think about their characters outside of the story and outside of the context of the story. A reader can feel such things. A reader can feel when a character only exists in that moment on the page and never before or again.
Another recent trick I’ve discovered is thinking about a single scene from each characters perspective–even writing it down if time allows. I believe I will put that into play for the next CRW workshop I host. Take a scene that features more than one character (or in the case of only one character, make the space around them a character and tell the story from its perspective as a second form) and tell that scene from the perspective of each character, taking into account history, motivations, and especially world view.
I have my partner to thank for a lot of this. I am working to see the world from her perspective and see my own actions through her eyes. It is not a pleasant view. It hardly ever is. However, it is important to see the person you are if you hope to achieve the goal of becoming the person you want to become.