Step one

To avoid symmetry, to do this try twisting the hips, shoulders, or head, just get the body moving, another way to avoid symmetry would be to bend limbs, place a hand on the hip, or scratching their head, make them crouching, or tilting moving one leg forward

Step two

making and following the line of action, the line of action should never be straight even adding a slight bend to it can give more life to your pose. The line of action will also usually follow from the head down to the legs, and remember you can have more then one line of action

Step three

Mid or pre-action, think of your characters as alive how often do you see a person doing nothing, so do the same for your characters, whether they are walking, sitting, about to fight, or eating try to show the viewer their motion or pre-motion

Step four

perspective, using perspective can make some of the most complex pose easier as you are following a grid, the further away your perspective point the more screwed your character will be

Step five

Foreshortening is the visible effect of shapes when they are drawn to have an impression of proper perspective.to achieve foreshortening think of how a camera can screw the perspective of an object or person you're seeing which varies depending on the cameras lens or distance of the camera

Step six

Exaggeration, sometimes it can be difficult to break the forms of anatomy that you have spent so long learning so to make it easier make the pose you want, and once the sketch is done duplicate it and push the forms, try it a few different times and overtime this can become a more natural behavior

Step seven

the unexpected, what I mean by this is by adding something to your piece that people don't expect like a nun with a weapon, or a human wearing a lampshade it will in turn make your piece much more striking to the viewers

Step eight

this final step goes hand in hand with making your characters feel more alive, This step is to add props, environment pieces, or background to your piece, having your character interacting with this things will in turn make your piece more interesting to the eye