Debate and Switch

Ambiguity is hard to write. The human urge to classify and simplify makes it challenging to create villains who might have a point, or heroes who don't always do the right thing, or situations with no clear right answer. But it's also tempting, because such situations and characters up the ante on the suspense and the reader's emotional engagement, and give you a truly compelling story.

I'm also sure you've all encountered a book or movie or TV show which starts out with a morally thorny problem or intriguingly questionable characters, and then throws in a plot twist that turns the whole thing black and white, or at least offers a clear 'right' answer.

Why do we authors do this?

Maybe it's because we don't know the right answer, but feel a need to provide the readers with an answer-- or just wrap up the story. Maybe we get cold feet at the thought of offending our audience, or allowing our characters to do something morally questionable. It's probably some combination of those factors, but the cure is the same:

Remember you don't have to know the right answer. Your characters can do things that make the reader cringe, and that's okay. Your story may simply highlight that sometimes there are situations in which no painless solution is available, and your characters are merely doing the best they can against overwhelming odds. It's okay to leave your readers thinking, rather than presenting them with a tidy ending.