In Medias Res: Starting in the Middle
Horace praised Homer for rushing his listener "into the middle of things" instead of starting with the birth of Helen. The Odyssey opens in year ten of Odysseus's journey and fills in the rest in flashback. In medias res is not a whole plot shape but an ordering choice: you pick a dramatic moment from the middle of the timeline and start there. The diagram shows the telling order along the bottom and the real chronology on the labels.
Step through the 6 beats
Click a point, use the buttons, or focus the diagram and press ← →. Drag the length slider to turn percentages into word positions.
Start at a high-tension moment from the middle of the chronology.
In flash fiction: Your first line drops the reader into motion.
Example beat"Hold on," Mara shouts into the radio, oil lamp in her other hand.
In Medias Res beats in a 500-word story
| # | Beat | What happens | Starts near word | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Open mid-action | Start at a high-tension moment from the middle of the chronology. | 0 | "Hold on," Mara shouts into the radio, oil lamp in her other hand. |
| 2 | Orient | Just enough context to follow. | 90 | The automatic lamp has failed; the storm has the island. |
| 3 | Backfill | Flashback or woven exposition explaining how we got here. | 190 | This morning a letter said the tower was hers only until midnight. |
| 4 | Resume and escalate | Return to the present action and raise the stakes. | 300 | The glass cracks. The boat is closer to the rocks. |
| 5 | Climax | The peak of the present-day line. | 410 | She holds the flame against the wind until the boat turns. |
| 6 | Resolution | Close the story. | 500 | At midnight the switch clicks. It no longer matters. |
In Medias Res: common questions
What does in medias res mean?
Latin for "into the middle of things". The story opens partway through the action and fills in earlier events later through flashback or dialogue.
What are famous examples of in medias res?
Homer's Odyssey and Iliad, Dante's Inferno ("Midway upon the journey of our life"), and films such as Pulp Fiction and Breaking Bad's pilot episode.
How do you write in medias res in flash fiction?
Open on a verb and a problem, give the reader one line of orientation, and keep any backstory to a sentence. Most strong flash fiction starts in medias res by default.