More on "In Media Res"

Question

"Is in media res only used at the beginning of novels or can you use it any where else in your novel?"

- Rebecca Anne, Wolverhampton, UK

Answer

Hi Rebecca Anne,

Before I start, let me just say to anyone who doesn't understand the question that I have previously written a full article on Beginning a Novel in the "Middle of Things". So go read that first.

The brief answer to your question is this: beginning in media res is generally associated with the start of a novel, but you can use precisely the same technique throughout the book.

As you know, starting "in the middle of things" means starting a piece of fiction at a point when the action is already underway. Chronologically, a novel begins like this:

1. You introduce a character living in their ordinary world. This is the status quo.
2. And then something happens to disrupt the status quo, forcing the character to act.

Beginning in media res flips the chronology - so you begin with the "something happening" and then backtrack to show the way things were before.

Like I said, this mostly happens at the beginning, but there is nothing to stop you making these little chronological flips anywhere in the book.

Here is an outline of a typical scene you might write:

1. A woman arrives at her ex-husband's house to ask him for money.
2. Standing on the doorstep, she almost changes her mind. But she musters her courage and rings the bell.
3. After the smalltalk, she asks for the cash. The husband wants to know what's in it for him.
4. The woman agrees to go to bed with him.
5. Afterwards, the husband rolls off her and says, "That was great, honey, but you're never getting another penny from me."

If you decided to start this scene in media res, it might look like this:

1. The woman is having sex with her ex-husband. You don't have to describe the sex itself in detail, but perhaps the woman looking out of the window to keep her mind off how much this man repluses her.
2. She then thinks something like, "If she had known it would come to this, would she have come here at all this morning?"
3. And this can lead into a dramatized flashback, starting with her arriving at her ex-husband's house to ask for money.
4. Continue with the chronology up to the point where she agrees to sleep with him.
5. Then return to the "here and now" by having her think, "Yes, she would have come here. She needed the money."
6. The husband rolls off her and says, "That was great, honey, but you're never getting another penny from me."

You probably won't want to begin every scene in media res. Sticking to the chronology is, by and large, the best way to tell a story - in terms of not confusing the readers. Though that is a suggestion, not a rule.

There is nothing stopping you, if you believe you could pull it off, from presenting the events of your story in any damn order you choose. Quentin Tarantino did precisely that in Pulp Fiction - and I believe that film did okay!

Harvey