A person does not need to study writing for very long before they encounter popular advice to have a good “hook” for the beginning of their story. After this, one is taught to write in medias respect or in the middle of the action. Most people interpret this as having some kind of action scene and then explain what is happening later. Unfortunately, this has led to massive amounts of novels starting their book in some sort of hectic battle scene in which the reader is trying to understand what is happening. Classically, this is not what in medias res means.
When you read Greek classics, the concept of in medias res is revealed by the fact that these stories are told going forward and backward in time by the use of flashbacks. These stories have a scope in which we are dealing with a present and urgent problem, but the solution requires that we learn bits of information from the past as we go. It is not that any information is withheld from the reader, but just given when needed.
Modern writers are nervous about using this convention because we are terrified of the “information dump.” We are instructed to show and not tell. Flashbacks do not need to be information dumps anymore than the present story time. I have seen some very creative ways writers have revealed the past from full chapters that take place at a different time to entries in a diary. Many mystery novels excel at revealing the past events in subtle ways.
I am not saying all books should have flashbacks, but I am tired of stories starting with confusing action scenes thinking that is good writing. There is nothing wrong with “Once upon a time.” A good story starts at the beginning, goes to the end, and then stops. The trick is knowing where the beginning, middle, and ending of the story is. In medias res gives us permission to not start the story at the beginning of world events or even the interesting events of the main character’s life. The beginning of the story is the beginning of a specific problem that is important to your main character.
The middle of a story is a little easier to figure out. The important thing, though, is to stay focused on your main character’s story and not to get distracted by other interesting aspects of your story, such as magic systems.
I wish more writers would end the story when the story ends. Artificial series of books, cliffhangers, and deus ex machina are not good endings. A story is done when the main character’s problem or character development is completed. Tolkien understood this and that is why the Lord of the Rings ends with the characters sailing over sea rather than at the destruction of the ring.
So, if you are not supposed to start with a confusing battle or action scene, how are you to start?
Start with your main problem or character. The beginning of Captain Blood by Sabatini has Dr. Blood watering his flowers as everyone else goes to battle.
How is this in medias res?
The story does not start at the beginning of Blood’s adventures nor at the beginning of the revolt. It starts in the middle of all of this at the beginning of Blood’s immediate problem: trying to stay out of conflict so he can have a peaceful life.
There are some classic novels that start with a description of the setting of the story. How is this in medias res?
First of all, not all stories need to start in the middle of things, but secondly, sometimes the setting is the problem, a character, or essential to both.
So why not start with a battle or action scene. If in medias res is not required for good writing, why not start with something exciting?
Many people do like books that start this way, but I find very few classic books that stick around start this way. The reason is that even though an action scene is entertaining for those with short attention spans, it often does very little to get us emotionally invested in the characters and problems of the book.
The very foundation of any good book is the characters. Epic novels with many main characters are extremely hard to pull off because compelling stories are about individual people and not really about world events. When we sit around and tell each other a story about something that happened, we are focused on a character , person or animal, who is individually interacting with the world.
If our characters are what separates a novel from a history textbook, then our hook is connecting with that individual. It is possible to connect with a character during an action scene, but people are often not doing much thinking or feeling while reacting. Counter to our modern movies and pop fiction, we connect better when a character is in the midst of what most identities them, even as mundane as watering flowers.
Check out my young adult fantasy fiction novels HERE for something optimistic and fun.
If you like this article, consider subscribing to my quarterly newsletter.
What do you think?