In medias res
In medias res means starting a story in the middle of the action and filling in how things got there later.
The phrase comes from the Roman poet Horace, who used it in the Ars Poetica to describe how Homer drops his audience straight into the middle of events. The Iliad starts years into the Trojan War, and the Odyssey starts with Odysseus most of the way home, with the journey told in flashback.
Modern novels do this all the time, often in a familiar way: a short prologue from late in the story (a body, a fire, a confession), followed by chapter one labelled “three months earlier”. Thrillers and mysteries use it most, because it promises you something big is coming.
The risk is that it borrows tension before it’s earned it. Drop a reader into a fight between people they don’t know yet, and they’ll notice the noise without caring how it turns out. The openings that work usually start with a smaller, easy-to-follow situation and let you get to know the characters quickly.
In medias res: common questions
What does in medias res mean?
Latin for “into the middle of things”. It describes a story that opens in the middle of the action and fills in the background afterwards.
Why do books start in the middle of the action?
To give you a question you want answered before you’ve got to know the characters. It grabs your attention early, and then the book has to live up to it.