In Medias Res

Pronounced in MAY-dee-ahs RAYS.

In Medias Res: Beginning a story in the middle of the action, with the background filled in later.

Opening mid-crisis skips the throat-clearing: the reader is handed stakes first and context second, on the promise that the backstory will be worth the wait.

In Medias Res examples

• "The Iliad opens in the ninth year of the Trojan War, mid-quarrel, not at its beginning."

  — The Iliad, Homer

• "The Odyssey starts with Odysseus already shipwrecked and held captive, ten years after Troy."

  — The Odyssey, Homer

• "Paradise Lost begins with Satan already fallen, waking in the lake of fire."

  — Paradise Lost, John Milton

• "The term comes from Horace's Ars Poetica, praising the poet who plunges the listener 'into the middle of things'."

  — Ars Poetica, Horace

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