After you've decided who your villain is, you need to figure out why he/she is the villain. What is this person doing that is making things difficult for your protagonist? Why is your villain a villain? Are they evil or just misunderstood? What is their goal?
Those are just a few questions you'll have to answer if you want to create a good, strong villain.
A lot of people don't put enough thought into their villain when creating the character. They just know the story needs a bad guy so they put in a character who just does bad things for no particular reason and there's no depth to the character, making the villain not very believable. Your villain is just as human as your protagonist. They have a story, you're just not telling it.
The first thing I do when I sit down to create my villain is decide what kind of villain they are. This is important to know because all villains aren't the same. If you don't know what kind of villain you have, the character will be one huge mess that no one, not even you, can understand. Here are what I feel are the more common type of villains.
Born Bad
Whatever it is that makes your villain a villain, it's important that he/she isn't just the bad guy. There has to be a reason the bad guy is bad. If your villain was just born bad it can come across as lazy writing. Unless you need the villain to be born bad because it goes with your plot, then my suggestion would be to avoid this option, unless you can do it really well. Being born bad doesn't really give your villain reasons or motivation for anything. It's just who they are, suggesting they can't be changed.
Inherently Evil
The inherently evil villain is a mix between born bad and the one with a history. Unlike the born bad villain who does bad things because he/she is bad or because your story needs a bad guy, the inherently evil villain is evil because their moral compass just doesn't work. They are evil because they don't know anything else. Maybe they were taught it was the correct path since they were young. Their parents were corrupt, so they were raised in a corrupted way. Perhaps they get pleasure from seeing others suffer or inflicting pain and misery on individuals. They're not bad because they're bad, they're bad because their brain is wired differently.
Insane
This type of villainy is intriguing and exciting to read because you know there is nothing your villain won't do. It also makes for an interesting character. Like the Joker from Batman. This gives your villain a reason for their villainy without creating the history of what made them evil. A psychotic character is always interesting when written well. Almost like their evilness is a disease that has them under control. Their evil stems from nothing except the disease in their brain.
A History
The villain in my current novel has a history that changed him into the villain he is, and that's also a good way to create the villain because it forces you to really understand your villain and where they are coming from, enabling you to write a character with layers for your reader to uncover and one that will involve them. Giving your villain a past will show the reader that there was a series of events that happened to this character to make him/her become a villain. You don't need to write the villain's backstory for the reader (although it can help if you do it for yourself) but you do need to make it clear that the villain is human and has a past.
Misunderstood
Maybe your villain isn't evil at all and is just a misunderstood character. They are opposed by your protagonist, but, really, aren't any more of an actual villain than you or I. For example, say someone was writing a story about a kid in high school who gets bullied. In your story, the bully would be the villain, but the bully isn't evil. It's just another kid. The "villain" is the person who stands between the protagonist and their goal and while they may not be an evil person, they are the evil the protagonist must ultimately overcome by either defeating or befriending. Sometimes your protagonist is the villain to your villain.
Perhaps you know of other types of villains and that's great. Like I said, this is just the information I've gathered over the years and how I tackle the writing process. These are the villains I commonly choose from. They're not categorized how professionals do, but this is how I categorize them.
Once you've figured out what kind of villain you have, you need to know why they are the villain. What does your villain want? What is their goal? How does their goal conflict with the goal of your protagonist?
When you know what your villain wants, you need to decide how they go about obtaining it. If it doesn't conflict with your protagonist, you need to find another way for your villain to try and get what they want.
One thing you need to keep in mind is that your villain has to be good. They have to be a genius, or exceptionally strong, or have some unique quality that makes them a difficult opponent. If your villain is weak and shallow, then so is your story because your villain provides conflict and without conflict, there's no story.
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