Relating to a character

"How can we relate to the character?" That's a question I ask myself a lot.

I think a big part of it is finding those little moments that we can all relate to. For example. Lets say you have someone cleaning their ears with a q-tip (random I know)...

Now you could approach the scene by having that person put the q-tip in his ear, swirl around, pull it out, and throw it away. Simple enough, and gets the job done.

OR

You could have him put the q-tip in his ear, swirl around, pull it out, look at the q-tip, than throw it away.

It seems like such a subtle difference right? To me that subtle difference adds oodles and oodles of thinking and life to the character.

Here is another example. Lets say you have a guy falling down...

You could have him fall down, stand back up, and then keep walking.

OR

You could have him fall down, stand up, look around slightly to see if anyone saw him fall, and then keep walking.

These subtle differences bring us closer to the character. They let us relate.