As I've been writing my newest short story, I've been fleshing out why the antagonist, Anton, does what he does. I've been struggling a bit with his motivations. Not only do I, as the author, need to know why he's doing these awful things in this neighborhood (sorry, you'll have to read the actual story when it's finished to get more), but I KNOW it's going to impact the actual story. Why he does what he does might lead Molly to solve the problem, might actually impact the ending of the story. Heck, there's no "might" about it. It will impact the ending.
So, I've struggled with Anton's motivations. One, because it's so important to the actual story, but, two, because I think a 3-D, complex character is much more interesting than a flat, purely evil character. As part of the creative process, I'm listing as many reasons why he might do these bad things as I can come up with. I'm up to about fifteen, and that fifteenth might be the winner. I refused, however, to even list "he's just evil" as a motivation. That's a cop-out.
My favorite characters and relationships in novels are those in which there's texture, multi-dimensions. There has to be something there that the reader, and maybe even the other characters, can connect with. Even with the bad guys. Very, very few people in real life are purely evil. They all have fears, needs, motivations... and since we all have those things too, writing will have more impact if we can identify with those characters.
I'd love to start a discussion around your favorite "bad" character. I'll start. I love the demon Al in Kim Harrison's Hollows series. Sure, he's a demon, but he's not solely one-dimensional. He's almost... human in his motivations. By The Outlaw Demon Wails, Al is tired, and he appreciates the respect that Rachel shows him. Yeah, maybe Rachel should do whatever she can to banish Al to the Ever After, but we, and she, almost feel sorry for Al.
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