How "In Medias Res" ACTUALLY Works (& When to Use It)
I haven’t ever done an article on in medias res in part because it’s been covered so much in the writing world already, what could I really add to it that you probably haven’t heard? Well, after looking around online … it turns out, quite a few things. I sometimes feel that in medias res gets misunderstood, and overused.
As most people who teach about in medias res will tell you within four seconds, “in medias res” is Latin that translates to “in the midst of things.” In some ways, this is pretty straightforward: Instead of starting a story with exposition or setup, you start with the action or conflict. Most people will cite that this will grab the reader and draw them into the story.
As someone who has read thousands of unpublished manuscript openings though, I’ll tell you that a lot of times, it doesn’t. But I’m getting ahead of myself, let me backtrack a bit (speaking of starting something in the “middle of things” 😉)
Back when I was a “young” writer, when the topic came up of how to start a story, it was often, if not almost immediately, followed up by talking about in medias res. “If you don’t know how to start the story, start in medias res”–I was told time and again.
So like many people, I thought that if I had bombs going off or someone dying in the first paragraph, that it would for sure hook the audience and get them to keep reading–and it’d be a great opening too!
Years later, when navigating submission piles, it soon became apparent to me that this often wasn’t the best way to start. I could only handle so many “bombs going off” (metaphorically or literally) and “war battles” (metaphorically or literally), and I could only handle them for so long … before they got boring. (And to add to it, often newer writers, in their efforts to make it “exciting,” make it unnecessarily graphic to the point of being grotesque.)
In contrast to what many people teach, in medias res can actually get rather boring within paragraphs or pages if it isn’t done well. Because in medias res means cutting off the exposition and setup, it also means cutting off the context. If I have no clue who to care about, how we got here, and why what is happening matters, it can be really difficult to get invested in the story. After reading several paragraphs of people being run through with swords, I start wondering, Why does this matter? And why do I care?
And immediately teaching about in medias res when someone asks how to start a story often isn’t a great way to teach how to start a story. After all–you’re actually cutting off the starting of the story.
Of course, like anything, beginning in medias res can be great when done well and for the right effect. But in order to do that, you need to understand how it actually works and what that effect is.
For starters, it’s helpful to not think of in medias res as only being used for story openings. You can use in medias res for any scene at any point in the story. So let’s talk about how this works on the scene level, and then talk about it on the narrative level.
Typically, a scene is defined as a unit of action that takes place in a single location and continuous time. But this definition is certainly not perfect and the boundaries can get blurry fast with the right examples. However, I think most can agree that a scene is one of the smallest recognized structural units in a story.
And all structural units–whether they’re a scene, sequence, act, or whole story–fit into this shape:
A scene will usually start with a hook and setup, followed by rising action (conflict), a climax, and a falling action. In some cases, some of these may be left out, but scenes almost always contain these things.
You can find slightly different approaches to scene structure from different sources.
For example, recently, I talked about scene structure according to Dwight V. Swain, who is famous for his approach. (In fact, his approach may arguably be the most famous.)
He recognizes two types of the smallest structural unit: scene and sequel (you can learn about them in more detail in “Scene Structure According to Swain” and “Sequel Structure According to Swain.”)
The scene is made up of three parts: goal, conflict, and disaster. And the sequel is also made up of three parts: reaction, dilemma, decision. But regardless, both still fit into the structure above.
In medias res means “in the midst of things,” so instead of starting with the hook and setup, you drop the audience right into the rising action, or in some cases, even climax. (And the conflict or climax often becomes the hook.)
The setup portion is used to ground the audience in the scene–it conveys when and where the scene takes place, who is in the scene, the character’s goal, may lay out the stakes, and if there are multiple viewpoint characters, will clue the audience into whose viewpoint they are in. (For more on all this and scene openings, see “4 Key Elements of Scene Openings.”) This orients the reader and gives context for what is about to happen. It gives meaning to the rising action.
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