No. In fact, he's my favorite character to write. Actually, one problem is going too in-depth with the bad guy. If he competes with and steals the limelight, sympathy, or empathy from the protagonist you have problems. This is one of my biggest problems. In creating a big menacing evil bad guy that is motivated -- it's very easy to forget that the protagonist needs to be the guy that the audience sides with, feels for, and ultimately roots for. It's part of the reason I don't really believe you can have a true anti-hero. The person the audience sides is usually the protagonist. Even if he does rotten shit (DEXTER). Mini-SPOILERS-- A great example of pushing the line between protagonist and antagonist is SEVEN. It's really easy to see where John Doe (Kevin Spacey) is coming from -- but he takes his premise so far into evil that its hard to side with him. And then we're knocked right back to David Mills side when we find out the horrible truth of John Doe's master plan. Don't we want to pull the trigger along with Detective Mills?

Good lord. If I couldn't write antagonists, I don't think I'd write at all.

Actually, I have more issues writing the good guys. I always want to make them too good. I have to remember to give them vices. For the bad guys, I have several models in my head, I guess (from TV, books, etc). I take one and expand on it, and give it my own twist. Actually, I think it's easier to step into the shoes of the bad guy. We all have our dark places, have seen bad things, met people we can't stand. Though, someone just told me that I'm sadistic so that might be it instead...

I was watching Batman the animated series recently and loved how most of the antagonists in the series are sympathetic. Mr. Freeze and his wife... Two Face... Clayface... you feel bad for these guys and thus understand what has driven them to do what they're doing. Totally helped me.

My problem with my Nemesis character is making her more believable and less one-dimensional. It's a dramedy, husband and wife and the wife is the Nemesis. I've got a draft where she's really just awful and my current rewrite is trying to make her more sympathetic, but not so sympathetic that it undercuts my protagonist. Like James said, if you make the nemesis too likable, it drains sympathy away from the protagonist. But with a married couple, if you make one partner too one-dimensionally terrible, the audience will wonder how they ever ended up married in the first place. American Beauty walked this razor's edge really well. So, related to this topic, I was thinking in the car today about Protagonist vs. Nemesis in family dramas where neither half of the husband/wife couple is the bad guy. I'm thinking Revolutionary Road or Blue Valentine. Would you think of these as having a dual protagonist model, and if so, where's the nemesis?

There's that great line (Elmore Leonard?): "Even bad guys have mothers." One key to writing a compelling Nemesis: Humanize them.

It seems like a lot of beginning screenwriters start in auteur-mode. They strive so hard for subtext, they forget to have a "heavy." I was guilty of this for a while.

Can't remember who wrote it, but it's been said that the villain should be the hero of his/her own narrative.

I have trouble writing a character that's likeable. Writing a villain is no problem.

That's a great note. Thanks, pliny.

For me, the villain is the most interesting character, because they are the least inclined to have doubts that what they're doing is wrong, and therefore they are the most willing to do audacious, bold, and yes, vile, things. Of course, I have a coffee table book on the world's greatest despots, so there is a high chance that I am just f---ing crazy. @Josh, I feel your pain.

I think I remember McKee saying that Lee Marvin said that he doesn't play bad guys. He plays good guys having bad days. That fits in pretty good with the Elmore Leonard line.

Alan Rickman agrees. "I don't play villains. I play very interesting people."