In Medias Res is one of those phrases that writers throw around, but not many seem to actually understand. The Latin phrase means “in the midst of things.” There are many different interpretations, but I’ve traced the term back to its first usage in order to better understand it. Below are my findings that I hope will clarify the term for you. I’ve also included one mistake I think new authors tend to make when they try to start a story In Media Res.
In Medias Res Definition and History
From what I can tell, the first use of this phrase was by the Latin poet Horace in his Ars Poetica. In this epistle, Horace gives beginning poets (and writers) advice. He points to Homer as a good example and says the following about Homer’s opening scenes in his stories.
“…nor trace the rise of the Trojan war from eggs: he always hastens on to the event; and hurries away his reader in the midst of interesting circumstances, no otherwise than as if they were known…”
Horace
There are four clauses to this quote that I want to unpack and explore. By doing so, we can better understand this Latin phrase and how it can help us start our stories.
1. From Eggs
The reference to the Trojan war most likely means Horace was referring to The Iliad and The Odyssey. Horace notes that Homer didn’t start at the beginning of the Trojan war for these adventures. He jumped to year nine of the Trojan war for The Iliad and then The Odyssey takes place after the war. Homer didn’t tell the characters’ full stories, but instead jumped to the defining moments he wanted to tell in his epics. There will be significant events in your protagonist’s past that affect the story, but you don’t have to show them on the page. You can allude to them in a way that doesn’t slow the story but also gives your readers clues to what happened.
Example
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card didn’t start with Ender receiving his implant and being watched for signs of a good commander. Instead, we see him on the final day as the implant is being taken out. It’s important that we know he has been under surveillance, but the story doesn’t start until they remove it to see what he can do. Similarly, you need to ask yourself if the reader really needs to see a scene unfold to understand the story or if you can just allude to it and move on.
2. Hastens To The Event
Some people interpret In Medias Res to mean the story starts after the inciting incident so the plot is already rolling on page one. I don’t think this is what Horace meant because he states Homer “always hastens on to the event.” While the event could allude to the story, it makes more sense to me that Horace was referring to the inciting incident, the event that gets the whole story rolling. By examining Homer’s works, we can see that inciting incidents are a crucial part of the written story that, as a general rule, shouldn’t be skipped.
Looking at The Iliad, some argue that the inciting incident is that Agamemnon has taken someone’s daughter and is too stubborn to release her despite the attacks his men are suffering because he holds her captive. While that is an important event that occurs off page, I don’t think it’s the inciting incident of the story. The event that puts the plot into motion is when Agamemnon decides to release the woman but take Akhilleus’s woman instead for himself. This act of betrayal is what causes Akhilleus to refuse to fight in the war and, therefore, cause all the events that unfold.
The same argument can be made for The Odyssey. Most say that Odysseus being captured by Calypso is the off page inciting incident, but it’s not. Athena arranging for Odysseus’s release is what starts his journey (or odyssey) home. Seeing Odysseus captured isn’t important for the story since it’s a tale about his journey home.
Example
If you are looking for a modern example of this, consider Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. The book starts with Bella on her way to live with her dad. Some may say that her mom telling her she’ll be moving in with her dad is the inciting event (there is no story if she never moves). Yet Stephenie doesn’t start the book with her mom telling her she’ll be moving, and that’s because the reader doesn’t need to see that scene to understand the story. The real inciting incident is when Edward saves Bella from being killed in the parking lot, revealing he has powers beyond a normal human. That is the event we need to see. If Bella never felt curious about Edward’s powers, she might never be interested enough to get close to him. Her curiosity is what starts her on a journey of vampires and werewolves.
3. In The Midst Of Interesting Circumstances
This clause in Horace’s writing is where In Medias Res (“in the midst of things”) appears. I like this translation because it notes there are interesting circumstances. That doesn’t mean it’s exciting, action-packed, or fast-paced. In Medias Res is not synonymous with “action scene” like most suspect. You don’t have to start in the middle of a fight or with your protagonist in a chase scene. Homer started both of his epics with a discussion (or maybe more like arguments), and he was praised for starting “in the midst of interesting circumstances.”
In Medias Res isn’t talking about how to start a story but where to start one. You don’t have to start with adrenaline-pumping excitement, but you need to start it where the story gets moving forward with high conflict. The scene needs to be unique in some way so it gains the reader’s attention.
Example
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins starts with Katniss waking up without her sister next to her (where she should be), and it’s the day of the reaping. There is no crazy action scene, but the reader knows there’s already something amiss. You need to start your story on an abnormal day for the character and show the tension and conflict of that abnormality. It also doesn’t hurt to start the story as close to the inciting incident as possible so the story gets rolling early on in the book.
4. As If They Were Known
Instead of boring his readers with the background for a story, Homer jumps to what tale he wants to tell and then fills in details as he goes. He drops readers “in the midst of interesting circumstances,” treating the characters “as if they were known” already to the readers. In other words, Homer doesn’t info dump at the beginning of a story. He doesn’t present the character profile he spent months building before he wrote the story. He just starts and counts on the reader to follow along as he works in details to introduce the characters slowly.
Homer doesn’t tell you much about Akhilleus at the beginning of The Iliad, but we see his characteristics. He’s levelheaded as he tries to reason with Agamemnon to release the female captive. We see his love for his men since he doesn’t fight them when they come to take his woman, instead telling them it wasn’t their fault they had to follow orders. We see his tenderness as he cries and mourns the loss of his lady. As writers, we need to imitate Homer and show our character’s personality and background without info dumping.
Example
A modern example is Carrie by Stephen King. We meet the main character as she is being bullied at school, and Stephen doesn’t have to tell us a thing about her. We can see she is insecure, that she doesn’t stand up for herself, and that she’s a loner. He shows us her personality by what is happening to her and how she reacts to it. Our connection with Carrie would not be so intense and immediate if the book opened with a sentence that listed adjectives about her and detailed all the ways she’s been bullied over the years. Instead, he jumps right in and works in facts about past instances that mirror the one she is currently enduring.
One Mistake To Avoid
When new authors are told to start a story In Medias Res, they often think of an action scene. If that type of beginning doesn’t fit their story, they often rearrange their story a little to make the beginning what they think is interesting. They will use a Flash Forward, which is when you take a climactic scene from your book and put it at the beginning. Then you jump back in time and work your way back to that scene. I personally feel this does nothing for the story as it gives the reader a false impression of how the story starts.
Twilight does this with a Flash Forward to when Bella is being attacked by a vampire, but I argue that you could skip that scene and read the book without losing anything. I’m sure there are times when publishers will say it’s a good call for a specific book, but I would advise against using it whenever possible. If you can’t make the beginning of your story interesting enough to hook your readers, then you are starting in the wrong spot. Remember, In Medias Res is about where you start your story, and it should be in the midst of interesting circumstances and as close to the inciting incident as possible.
Final Thoughts
In Medias Res means to not start your story with info dumps and backstories, but to begin with a scene where something interesting is going on that leads to the inciting incident. The opening does not have to be an action scene. You want to write a scene that shows who your character is by how he responds to the interesting conflict happening around him.
Thanks for reading!
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