Character creation – a different approach

The most common advice when creating a character, is to think of a character history. That is, for example, was there something in the childhood of your character that has greatly influenced it? Or maybe your character has a Goal? Or maybe a Motivation? How was your character raised? Did he or she managed to acquire an enemy?
And many such questions...

And, of course, those are important questions. However those questions, while important, may not actually help you create your character.
The problem with those questions is that they touch on the "big things", not on things that will make your character live.
Considering some kind of a trauma that your character had when she was a child may be pointless and meaningless if you are playing 40 years old established detective. Unless, of course, you want it to be crucial part of your character.

My suggestion is to take a slightly different approach. Think about yourself. How would you describe you? What would you start with? You would probably mention your age - or not, he would probably say what you do, you could mention part of your view on the world. You might also mention your hobby. So what you could say might be "I am 21 years old architecture student, who likes to play the guitar." Or you might say "I am an experienced car mechanic who is very passionate about his job"

And this is something that tells something about you and that is meaningful. Now, think about your character. If you were to describe them with one sentence, what would you say? For example one of my characters could be described as "a skilled doctor, who will do her best to help people, not only medically".
If you cannot describe your character in a short and concise way, you don't know your character enough to actually play it. You will not have an understanding actions and reactions of your own character.
To make it easier to describe a character in such a brief way, you can try to think of different situations and how the character might react when placed in such a situation.
Now, the situations you need to come up with yourself, and they do not need to be the situations you would expect to happen in game. This helps of course but this is a tool for you to understand your character, so, whatever works.

Some examples:

What would your character do if she saw a little child in the mall, lost?
Or if attacked in the back alley?
What if someone tries to bribe them?
Would they stop a hungry child stealing an apple? An old man?
How will they solve a problem when they do not have sufficient knowledge?
Would they - and if yes, how - help a homeless person?
What is their most typical way of dealing with problems - do they go the cunning way or maybe they brute force it?
Can you think of a fun episode in their lives? Maybe, when they took revenge on their opponent? Something else?
How do they rest?

Those questions revolve around personality of your character. Try to think of very, very short stories, that will illustrate who your character actually is.

And if you really have to go the way of "The Great Enemy Who Killed My Beloved Ones", try to at least understand why would they do that?
Because Stupid Evil enemy is, honestly, no fun.