The building is already on fire when your story starts.
No explanation of who lit it. No backstory about the building’s construction. No context about why it matters. Just flames, smoke, and someone running toward the exit.
This is in medias res—literally “in the middle of things”—and it’s one of the most powerful tools in storytelling.
Why Starting in the Middle Works
Traditional story structure suggests you introduce characters, establish setting, explain stakes, then deliver conflict.
In medias res inverts this completely:
- Conflict first - The chase, the argument, the disaster
- Character through action - Who they are emerges from what they do
- Context through gaps - Readers infer backstory from fragments
- Explanation later - If needed at all
The approach trusts your reader’s intelligence. They can handle disorientation. They can piece together what’s happening from clues. In fact, that cognitive work increases engagement.
The Psychology of Immediate Engagement
When you drop a reader into action, their brain does something fascinating: it tries to construct the missing context.
This isn’t frustration—it’s active reading.
Consider Homer’s Odyssey, the ancient template for in medias res:
“Tell me about a complicated man…”
We meet Odysseus in year ten of his journey home. He’s already fought the Cyclops, resisted the Sirens, and angered Poseidon. The story starts near the end, then backtracks through memory and flashback.
The structure itself creates tension. You know he survives (he’s telling the story), but you don’t know how or at what cost.
Modern Applications
Film and Television
Think about the cold open in Breaking Bad:
A man in his underwear drives an RV frantically through the desert. There’s a gun. Bodies in the back. A gas mask. Sirens approaching.
Who is he? Why is he half-naked? What happened?
You don’t know, and that’s the point. The confusion hooks you. Then the show rewinds: “Three weeks earlier…”
By the time the narrative catches up to that cold open, you’re invested. You’ve been waiting to understand the context of that first image.
Literary Fiction
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz opens:
“They say it came first from Africa, carried in the screams of the enslaved…”
We’re already deep in a curse’s history before we meet Oscar. The novel doesn’t introduce the protagonist chronologically—it introduces the weight he’s carrying.
Context comes later. The curse comes first.
Genre Fiction
The Hunger Games drops Katniss into the arena within pages. We learn about the Capitol, the rebellion, and the political complexity while she’s trying not to die.
Meyer doesn’t stop the action to explain. She embeds exposition in survival.
What You Can Skip
When you start in medias res, you earn permission to omit:
The Morning Routine
Unless the routine is disrupted in a meaningful way, skip it. Your protagonist brushing their teeth isn’t story—it’s filler before story.
The “Normal World”
The Hero’s Journey teaches that you show the ordinary world before disruption. But readers don’t need to see normalcy to understand it’s been broken.
Start with the break. Imply what came before through contrast.
Character Introduction Paragraphs
You don’t need: “Sarah was a 34-year-old accountant who enjoyed yoga and hated her commute.”
Show Sarah in a moment of pressure. Her age, profession, and personality will emerge through her responses to conflict.
The Trust Contract
Starting mid-action requires trusting your reader to:
- Tolerate confusion temporarily - They won’t close the book if they don’t immediately understand
- Infer from context - Smart readers assemble meaning from fragments
- Wait for explanation - They’ll trust that answers are coming
- Enjoy the puzzle - Mystery creates engagement
Break that trust by:
- Never providing clarity
- Making the confusion arbitrary (random, not purposeful)
- Withholding for shock value rather than narrative purpose
When NOT to Use In Medias Res
This technique isn’t universal. Some stories benefit from chronological structure:
When the “Before” Matters More Than the “During”
If your story is about the slow accumulation of pressure—like a domestic drama about a marriage failing—starting mid-explosion might rob the story of its power.
The tension in those narratives is watching the cracks form, not just witnessing the collapse.
When Character Attachment Requires History
Some readers need to know a character before caring about their danger. This varies by genre and reader expectation.
Epic fantasy often spends chapters establishing the protagonist’s ordinary life before disruption because the investment comes from contrast: “Look how far they’ve come from that simple beginning.”
When the Setup IS the Story
If the joy of your narrative is watching dominoes carefully arranged before they fall, don’t start with the falling. The anticipation is the point.
Techniques for Effective In Medias Res
1. Ground Readers Quickly
Even in chaos, give readers something to hold onto:
- A specific sensory detail (the smell of smoke)
- A clear immediate goal (reach the door)
- A recognizable emotion (panic, determination)
Disorientation without grounding becomes frustration.
2. Drop Context Through Action
Don’t stop the scene to explain. Embed information in what’s happening:
Clunky:
She ran down the hallway. She’d worked in this building for five years but never expected to see it like this.
Smooth:
She took the left corridor—five years of muscle memory—though she’d never navigated it through smoke before.
The second version conveys her history without pausing the momentum.
3. Use Dialogue as Exposition Delivery
Characters under pressure reveal information naturally:
“We should’ve left when the alarm first sounded!” “And miss the data retrieval? That’s what we came for.”
Two lines establish: alarm went off earlier, they chose to stay, they’re here for data, they’re now questioning that choice.
4. Flash Back Purposefully
If you start mid-action and need backstory, use flashbacks strategically:
- Keep them short
- Trigger them with present-moment sensory details
- Return to present action quickly
- Make the flashback reveal something that reframes the current moment
Balancing Disorientation and Clarity
The reader should feel:
- Confused about specifics (Who? Why? How did this start?)
- Clear about basics (What’s happening right now? What’s at stake immediately?)
You want them leaning forward with questions, not closing the book in frustration.
Test: The Three-Page Rule
By page three, your reader should understand:
- Who is the focal character (even if not by name)
- What is happening in this immediate moment
- Why it matters (stakes don’t need full explanation, but direction must be clear)
Everything else can wait.
Classic Examples to Study
The Iliad - Homer
Starts in year nine of the Trojan War. Helen’s abduction, the gathering of armies, early battles—all happened offscreen.
Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
“Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.”
We’re already in the condition before understanding how it happened.
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Opens with a gun in the protagonist’s mouth. We spend the entire novel circling back to this moment.
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
Offred is already living in Gilead’s dystopia. The world’s transformation into theocracy unfolds through memory, not chronological exposition.
Practical Application
Take your current opening. Scan forward to the first moment of real conflict, surprise, or change.
Can you start there?
What would you lose? What would you gain?
Sometimes the answer is: “I’d lose necessary context and confuse readers.” Sometimes it’s: “I’d lose nothing but pages of throat-clearing before the real story.”
If the second applies, cut everything before that moment.
Start in the middle.
The Confidence of In Medias Res
Beginning mid-action signals confidence. You’re telling the reader:
“I trust you to keep up. I trust you’re smart enough to assemble this puzzle. I respect your time too much to explain everything upfront.”
That respect creates reader loyalty.
Start with fire. Explain the matches later.
Further Reading
- Previous: The First Sentence That Changes Everything
- Next: The Promise of the Premise
- Related: Scene vs Summary: When to Zoom In