Most writers feel pressure to create the perfect opening for their novel. One way writers often approach this task is by starting the story in medias res.
In media res means to start in the middle. The story is already in full swing, and the reader is dropped straight in the middle of the action.
In this article, I’ll take you through the definition of in medias res, look at examples of stories that start this way, and examine how you might do the same.
In Medias Res: Definition
Translated from Latin, in medias res means ‘in the middle of things.’ In ancient times, this term was used to refer to starting in the middle of stories, then moving back to fill in the proceeding action.
In Virgil’s Aeneid, for example, the story begins with Aeneas becoming stranded on the shores of Carthage, where he meets Queen Dido. She asks Aeneas to tell her the account of the fall of Troy. He recounts this over the course of the poem’s next two Books, and we only return to the present moment in Book Four, when the tragic love story between Dido and Aeneas unfolds.
It was the Roman poet Horace who coined the term ‘in medias res.’ The opposite strategy, that of starting from the beginning, he referred to as ‘ab ovo,’ or ‘from the egg’.
The word ‘egg’ refers to the mythological start of the Trojan War (which set off the events later played out in The Aeneid, The Illiad and The Odyssey), when Helen and Clytemnestra were birthed from an egg after Zeus, appearing as a swan, seduced and impregnated Leda.
An example of a story starting ‘from the egg’ would be Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield, which opens by recounting the start of young David’s life from birth.
If we follow the strictest definition of the term, then starting a story in medias res would follow a similar pattern to that of the ancient epic poems, beginning in the middle of the story and then taking us back to the start of events.
Another way some people describe a story starting in medias res is to say that the story’s inciting incident has already taken place when the story starts. The story may then take us back in time to describe the key inciting incident as the narrative progresses. However, this description can cause confusion to writers, because even if your inciting incident has taken place before the story starts, you’ll still need to create an inciting incident scene at the relevant point within your narrative (more on this later).
Many people today use the term more loosely to refer to a story that simply starts in the midst of important, high-stakes action, and then slowly fills us in on important background details.
It doesn’t really help to get too bogged down arguing over definitions. If you’re a writer, it’s more important to know how to write a strong beginning than it is to be able to say with certainty or not that your opening meets the definition of starting in medias res.
Let’s look at some examples of stories starting in medias res, to see how other storytellers have pulled this off effectively.
In Medias Res: Examples in Literature
As discussed above, starting stories in medias res was a favoured technique of ancient epic poets such as Virgil.
In modern literature, the form is often more flexible. Writers need to pull readers into their story quickly, without allowing the reader to feel so overwhelmed by a lack of understanding that they give up and put the book down straight away.
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
Twilight opens with a prologue which works as a flash-forward to the story’s end. The prologue shows Bella about to die. It’s short, providing just enough intrigue for the reader to ask questions about what’s happening, but without lasting so long that the reader gives up, confused by their lack of understanding.
The Twilight prologue is effective, in that it draws the reader into the high-stakes action immediately, which then allows Meyer to draw out the first full chapter at a slower pace. We’re more interested in getting to know Bella in the slower first chapter, now that we know her life will be endangered as the story progresses.
The brief prologue is then followed by a strictly sequential and chronological narrative, which meets all the key plot points at the ideal percentage marks of the story.
All The Light We Cannot See by Antony Doerr
This novel opens in 1944, with leaflets flowing across a town, warning its inhabitants to depart before the bombing begins.
This story, about two characters’ experiences throughout the Second World War, then progresses in a non-linear fashion, switching between scenes set in different years and from varying points-of-view. The manner in which the scenes are sequenced, though at times disorientating, works together to form a brilliant and cohesive whole, with key plot points always occurring at key percentage marks of the novel.
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
This novel opens with a vampire telling a boy he would like to give him the story of his life. This technique works as a frame for the primary narrative, which then begins chronologically as the vampire begins to tell his story.
By using this frame, Rice adds a mood of threat to her story, as we’re always aware of the boy’s precarious position as he sits in the room with a vampire, who could attack him at any moment.
A further sense of dreamy reflectiveness is added to the mood, as we’re presented with a bloodthirsty creature who wishes to leave behind a more refined legacy in recounting the story of his life. We know straight away that this isn’t your usual, run-of-the-mill vampire, but a creature with more complex sensibilities.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
This novel opens with a short past-tense scene taking place in the middle of the take-over of the United States by religious fundamentalists. It’s followed by a present-tense scene of our protagonist Offred living her life as a Handmaid under the tyrannous regime.
The narrative subsequently shifts repeatedly between the present-tense account of Offred’s current struggles, and past-tense flashback scenes as she remembers her life before and during the takeover of her country.
The narrative works beautifully both to draw the reader into the action immediately, asking questions and caring deeply about how this state of affairs came to be, whilst also reflecting the traumatised, disjointed psyche of our protagonist.
With this dystopian story, Atwood pulls off a fantastic balance between present action and action-filled backstory and world-building.
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
The novel features a short but masterful opening scene, which is in fact the story’s climax, as we learn, from differing perspectives, that a school trivia night descended into chaos and then murder.
We’re then taken back to six months before the trivia night, as we learn chronologically from different points-of-view about the events which lead up to this murder, along with who died and who is responsible.
In Medias Res: Plot Structure
As you can see from the examples above, as long as we take a broad definition of ‘in medias res,’ no clear formula exists for how to structure a story this way.
It’s very much a judgement call as to which scene you choose to open your story with. Some, like The Aeneid and The Handmaid’s Tale, begin in the middle of the story. Others, like Big Little Lies and All the Light We Cannot See, begin with a flash-forward to the climax scene. Some, like Interview with the Vampire, use more of a frame device for their narrative.
If you choose to open your story in the middle or the end, it’s important that you understand:
- Exactly why you are doing this. What’s your purpose in starting somewhere other than the beginning?
- Which scenes form your key plot points, so that you’re clear on exactly which scene you’re opening your story with.
Before you plan or draft your novel, you should first establish who is your protagonist and what their story goal is.
With this information, you’re in a good position to start planning or identifying your key plot points in the story. Once you’ve understood this, you’ll have a clearer idea of how to ensure your narrative still holds together cohesively, despite starting in medias res.
The Inciting Incident
The inciting incident is the scene in which your protagonist meets their story goal. It must happen within the first 15 percent of your narrative.
Earlier, I highlighted that some people argue when a story starts in medias res this means the inciting incident has already taken place.
An example would be found in Lee Child’s The Killing Fields, when the key murder of the story takes place before we meet our protagonist Reacher, who’s then mistakenly arrested for the murder. The argument here is that the murder forms the inciting incident for the story, and as the novel opens, it’s already taken place, allowing for a strong scene to take place, in the midst of the action.
However, from Reacher’s perspective, his arrest is the inciting incident, not the murder. It’s only when he’s arrested for a crime he didn’t commit (on the novel’s first page), that Reacher meets his story goal: that of proving his innocence by finding and catching the real killer.
What this shows is that, even if you start your story with important events having already taken place, you still need to be sure that there’s a key scene in which your protagonist meets their story goal within the first 15 percent of the narrative.
For example, in The Handmaid’s Tale, at the novel’s 14 percent mark, Ofglen subtly uses the words ‘May day’ to Offred, who remembers the use of the word from her past life as a call for help. Here, Offred’s introduced to the concept of rescue and the code word ‘mayday,’ which leads her towards her story goal of escape.
Despite the many flashes back and forward throughout the narrative, Atwood ensures the inciting incident happens at the key structural moment.
Plot Point One
Regardless of how you’ve structured your narrative’s chronology, you want to ensure that your protagonist accepts their story goal at a scene within the 20-30 percent marks of your story.
For example, although the narrative in All the Light We Cannot See jumps forward and back, at the 25 percent mark we see one of our key characters, a young German boy Werner, decide that his best course in life is to go with the Nazi army to work as a radio engineer. This life choice allows him to escape his Father’s destiny of dying down a mine.
In the very next chapter, our other main character, Marie Laure, begins experimenting with radios. These two key scenes set our characters on course to communicating with each other and forming a friendship across the divide of their warring nations.
Story Middle
At the Story Middle, in the 45-55 percent of your narrative, regardless of how you’ve ordered your narrative’s chronology, you want to show a scene in which your protagonist starts proactively chasing their story goal.
In The Aeneid, for example, the middle scene features Aeneas travelling down to the Underworld, where he meets his ancestors and sees the future destiny of Rome, the great nation he will found. From this point on in the story, Aeneas proactively seeks to found his new nation.
Plot Point Two
At the 70-80 percent mark of your novel, your protagonist should experience their lowest point yet, which leads to an important revelation.
For example, in Big Little Lies at the 75 percent mark, Celeste realises that, while she had believed she was being understanding of her husband’s past trauma, in fact she’d actually merely excused his abuse and enabled her own son to also grow into an abuser.
Climax
At around the 90 percent mark of the narrative, your protagonist should achieve or fail at their story goal. If you started your story with a flash-forward to the climax scene, then you’ll now show the reader the same scene, for which they possess a new understanding and perspective.
For example, at the 90 percent mark of Big Little Lies, we learn who dies at the school trivia night, who committed the murder, and why.
The questions asked by the opening scene, where we witnessed a snapshot of the aftermath of the climax scene, are now fully answered.
Tips for Writing In Medias Res
Orient Your Reader
Yes, you want to open your scene with a hook which makes the reader ask questions about what’s going on. However, if you don’t start answering some of these key questions fairly soon, you may struggle to hold your reader’s interest.
Usually, your reader wants to be given enough information to orientate themselves visually in the scene.
Providing clues as to date, time and location can help, as can making your scene visually immersive with lots of details about what the narrator can see.
You want your reader to be thinking: This is interesting! What’s happening here? You don’t want your reader to be thinking: I have no clue whatsoever what’s happening here and I don’t care.
The Twilight prologue, for example, locates the reader in a room in Forks, and provides just enough detail – the hunter’s dark eyes and friendly smile – for the reader to be able to see what’s happening from the narrator’s perspective.
The narrator’s thoughts – that this is as good a way to die as any – act as an immediate emotional hook providing a high-stakes, life and death scenario.
Once the reader is orientated in the scene, and given some reason to care for the character, then they’ll be more likely to be interested in reading on, to learn the answers to the questions asked by your opening.
Starting and ending your opening scene with strong hooks is critical to making an opening in medias res work well.
Balance Action and Backstory
When you start your story in the middle of the action, you’re going to have to provide the missing context somehow, or you’ll end up with some very confused readers.
I wish I could give you a simple formula for how to do this, but unfortunately, one doesn’t exist. It’s a balance you’ll need to find for yourself.
Getting reader feedback can be critical here, as readers can provide you with their opinion as to whether you’ve included too much backstory from the start or too little.
However, tastes vary in this regard, with some readers preferring more backstory and others preferring less, so you may well find you garner conflicting feedback on this point.
As much as possible, try to follow the examples of your favourite stories which start in media res to see how these writers have balanced out action and explanation.
It’s also worthwhile deciding whether a simple backstory summary will be sufficient to give the reader the necessary knowledge to understand the protagonist’s situation, or whether you’ve so much backstory to include that you might prefer to use two different timelines.
Stories which begin with a flash-forward to the climax and then return to the start (such as Twilight and Big Little Lies) often continue with a leisurely start to their now-chronological story, hoping that the reader has already been hooked by the climactic opening.
Whereas stories which start right in the middle of events, and then continue by moving both backwards and forward within alternative narratives, often make use of different timelines or point-of-view narrations, as we see with The Handmaid’s Tale and All the Light We Cannot See.
Conclusion
Although starting your story in medias res can be a great way to draw in readers to your story’s action, you’ll see from my above advice that it isn’t always the easiest way to start your story.
If, however, you’ve a strong reason for beginning your story this way, you can create a compelling opening which hooks readers in immediately.
Don’t let yourself get stuck at the start, if you find the pressure for creating a brilliant opening overwhelming.
You may find it easier to plan or write your story chronologically, and then rearrange the scenes once you fully understand your story’s structure and themes.