As for whether a protag can have more than two goals, he/she certainly can, it just can get messy, as I mentioned in the post. And sometimes readers can get confused (or exhausted) about which goal to root for. But take a closer look at your three revolving goals — are they perhaps more closely aligned than you think? Do they all take the character to the same fulfillment? An example of multiple goals is The Wizard of Oz, where there were actually several for Dorothy to pursue: she needed to see the wizard; she needed to get the witch’s broomstick; she needed to get those ruby slippers on; she needed to catch that hot-air balloon! But these were all actually smaller goals that drove the larger goal of the book, which was to get home. Smaller goals like this create the action of the book. Perhaps this is what your three revolving goals are doing?

I think the only thing that would be confusing is if the three revolving goals led to different areas of fulfillment for your character. For instance, if one led to independence, but another led to commitment, while another led to world status. The reader would be confused about what your character really WANTS and would find it hard to keep rooting.

So as long as your three revolving goals play into each other, and lead to a final fulfillment that makes sense for a single character to want, I think you can make it work.

But there’s also the “evil protagonist” who doesn’t really save the day or make you like him much (although there’s sometimes a twinge of sympathy) — I would put the killer Perry in this category, from In Cold Blood — nothing “heroic” about him, but he’s the protag.

One of my all-time favorite movies is “The Professional”. It’s about a hit man who finds himself taking care of a 12-year old girl to whom he bears no relation. Every character in the movie is crooked in one way or another and the main character, Leon, is the best of the bunch. But, HE IS A HIT MAN. Still, it doesn’t take long into the movie for the viewer to be rooting for Leon.

I don’t know the first thing about writing, but I imagine is takes a pretty stellar writer to create a character who is so evil, yet so likable. In the real world, we would never side with murderers, but a well written character can make you root for the bad guy. It makes you wonder a little about yourself when you find these types of protagonists sympathetic.