Writing a character

Don't put yourself into your character's situation. Put your character into your character's situation, and let him do what he would do.

If the character goes into the basement of the deserted house and finds it full of rats, I would leave. But the character might get a crowbar and wade in. Or he might get a shotgun out of the back of his car. Or he might burn the house down. Or hire someone else to go open the door at at the bottom of the basement. Might get a 55 gallon drum full of cats and roll it down the stairs. But if you write what you would do, and you aren't the protagonist, then you're going down the wrong path and wasting your typing.