Good people!

Question: Do you need good versus evil to make a story work?

My protagonist, a thirty-something female, is ought to be likeable, her opponent (can't tell you too much atm) is a mysterious guy whose motives you don't really know. But he has a plan. The narrator doesn't know it yet. Me neither.

I want to create characters that are three-dimensional and don't have just one characteristic. I always hate it when they do. When a character is just evil or good it is boring! You want them to create and dissolve moral dilemmas, want to watch them fall and rise up again. So i reckon, for a character to be interesting it can't be good nor evil, but it needs to be challenged at every corner and the decisions may vary depending on the overall-agenda. Yes, put them through hell! If Jack Bauer was real he'd need a lifetime of therapy, poor guy.

Speaking of Bauer, unfortunately in his case it becomes predictable very quickly what he is willing to do in the name of his loved ones. That's the only moral challenge there ever is. Ok, so he will bend the rules for his daughter...now, what's for dinner? Big yawn! Doing good in the name of evil would be that much more interesting instead of the other way around :)