Why is Writing Bad Guys So Much Fun?

I’m not going to lie: I have WAY more fun writing more “bad” characters (like the Hunter, Ilanna, and Nolan) than the more “classic” heroes.

Don’t get
me wrong, noble and upstanding characters (like Aravon) can be really enjoyable
to write, too. Something about their never-ending quest to make the world a
better place appeals to my inner optimist.

But when I
write characters who dance along the darker side of society—assassins, thieves,
rogues, spies, and other typical “bad guys”—I find I enjoy the ups and downs of
their stories a lot more.

Why is
that, I wonder?

A study in Psychological
Science actually came up with an explanation for it: “Real-life viewers (or
readers)—protected by the veil of fiction—might be drawn to villains when they
reflect aspects of themselves. What makes these characters potentially
attractive to people is not that they are the inverse of who we are, but that
they actually might echo pieces of who we are.”

Think about it:

These “bad guys” embody the darker side of humanity, but
they’re still VERY much human. They have a lot of our traits—both good and bad—and
they look a lot like us, but they’re the darker versions of who we could be.

Notice that last bit “who we could be”.

We’ve all got a darker side, things we hide from the world
or suppress for the sake of living in society. We live moral lives and dislike
it when others around us don’t toe that same line of morality.

But fiction gives us this “veil” that allows us to explore
those darker parts of ourselves as reflected by the villains and anti-heroes we
read. We can safely live within our nice little moral world, yet still
occasionally dip our toes into the waters of immorality through the characters
we read.

Or, in my case, write.

Now, excuse me while I go dream up new and creative ways to have the Hunter execute demons and have Nolan Garrett take out his targets!

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