Creating a Character as a Symbol?

I created a character performing a walk cycle and made it a symbol. I'm still new to Animate, so I'm wondering if it is a good practice to make a character a symbol? The reason I ask is that after the character walks, then I find that I have to stop using the symbol and instead animate the next movement by using layers on the main timeline. So I am switching back and forth between using the symbol if the character is walking, back to using layers on the main timeline. I feel like there must be a better way of going about this? Thank you to anyone who can share advice!