Some authors prefer to create villains. Writers can make them as evil as they choose. If you want to read about some of the worst, I suggest you take a look at "Eenie" in Dean Koontz's From the Corner of His Eye or any of the bizarre and intricate bad dudes in the Patrick Bowers Series by Steven James. Evil. Treacherous. Smart. Clever. Creepy. Horrid antagonists. Not for the faint-hearted cozy mystery types.
So why is it they enjoy making up villains? Touching evil and bringing it to the page? Is it easier to imagine wickedness and inject it into a character than to create a solid "good" character?
The risk we run with "good" characters is to make them too good, cheesy in their goodness, syrupy sweet if female, or too heroic if male. The choice to truly design a good character, the actual hero/protagonist insures the writer use a serious measure of wisdom.
Some readers love the syrupy sweet and the major, seemingly flawless hero. Other readers despise those types of characters ranting about their lack of realism. One of the most difficult jobs for me as a writer is to create that "good guy". There really are some cool good guys in this world, but there are also some cool bad boys who aren't necessarily "bad" as in evil or wicked. None of us is without flaws, but attempting to make a male character "good" without making him a hero can be a tough task.
However, if the protagonist is a Christian, it's far easier to fall into the stereotypical, cliché, too-good-to-be-true categories, although the same possibility exists inwriting villains with the too-bad-to-be-true as the differentiating factor. But that doesn't really ever happen with the evil characters. There seem to be no limits as to the portrayals of the depraved.
As some of you know, I'm writing my first crime novel/police procedural. If you know me, you know I write character studies, love stories, and I'm soft on action. Not my gig. This particular novel is not a shoot-'em-up-bang-bang story, and of course there is a thread of romance. There is a perpetrator of a murder, but after over 75K words, I just figured out who killed someone. So now I have an antagonist, but he's been mostly faceless and way under the radar until just a few words ago. So what will I do with him. What kind of villain is he? Will he be trapped?
The "good" guys have been written, and they're certainly not perfect. But I think they're the kind of characters you root for as a reader. "Good" characters. I've enjoyed creating them more than I will enjoy fleshing out this bad guy. I can't tell you why.
Which do you prefer to read about and write about?
Father, help me to nail down the characters. Let them seem plausible and real. Please. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.