Pixar's Andrew Stanton uses this technique to create unforgettable characters: "I often give characters spines, meaning the way they're wired up no matter what's going on in life. It's the core of you." "Michael Corleone, his spine is to please his father, and that never goes away even after his father dies in the second Godfather movie." "WALL-E's spine was to find the beauty." I heard a similar idea from Wright Thompson, who's known for his profiles: "A profile is figuring out what is the central complication in any person's life. How do they go about solving it in every single thing that they do?" "If you can get clear on that, and then have that motif, that theme show up in all the stories, now you have the conflict, you have the tension, you have a story, you have an arc, and everything comes together."