In medias res: meaning and examples

in media res is a Latin locution that literally means "in the middle of the matter" or "in the middle of the action" and is used especially referring to the the way a story begins. There are many ways to deal with a text and it is important that you have some tools in your hand, in order to avoid the fear of facing a blank piece of paper.

In this lesson from a PROFESSOR, we are going to explain in detail what is the concept of in media resand how you can apply it to your narratives.

in media res is a Latin locution that translates "in the middle of the matter", as we have mentioned above. It is a literary technique in which the narrative begins in the middle of the facts, halfway through the story, regardless of whether the characters are already in full action.

This way of telling stories was devised by the Latino writer Horace, since in his work poetic ars used the term in media res to describe how Homer began to tell the story of the siege of Troy in the iliad.

It's a way to start a story

more dramatically. Instead of starting from the beginning, the narrative picks up in the middle of the action, with the protagonist already facing problems. This seeks to capture the reader's attention from the beginning.

It is important to understand the difference between story and narration when using this technique. The story is the events that happen in order: what happens first, next, and last. Storytelling, on the other hand, is how we communicate those facts. It is not necessary to show all events in the same order in which they occurred., nor to tell all the details of the story.

That is, this narrative technique implies that the key elements to develop the plot of the story are revealed through memories or flashbacks, in which we discover the origins, the motivations of the characters and the main conflict of the story.

In addition to the example we have given you of in media res of the iliad of Homer, there are many more occasions in which this resource is used in literature. One much closer to us is the one that uses Gabriel Garcia Marquezin his novel Cone hundred years of solitude. The beginning of the work is already well advanced in the story and throughout the book the background that has led the protagonist there is discovered:

"Many years later, facing the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía would remember that remote afternoon when his father took him to see ice. Macondo was then a village of twenty mud and cane houses built on the banks of a river of waters clear and diaphanous that precipitated by a bed of polished stones, white and enormous like eggs prehistoric."

In this first paragraph we can clearly see how the novel begins in the middle of the events, at the moment when Aureliano Buendía is already a colonel and he is about to be shot. However, he instantly jumps to an image from the past in which the origin of the town and the Buendía family begins to be recounted.

This resource can also be found in the world of cinema in movies like Star Warsby filmmaker George Lucas. Look at the beginning the next time you watch the movie!

Another example in the literature is found in my name is red, a novel by Orhan Pamuk that begins with these intense sentences:

"Now I am dead, I am a corpse at the bottom of a well. Find the man who murdered me and I will tell you in detail what is in the afterlife."

If you want to try this resource in any of your texts, you must know one of the key tricks so as not to fail and capture the reader's attention from the first lines. Remember that NOT ANY TIME SERVES and that you must choose the times well for the narrative to work well. Usually, authors include a small scene at the beginning and then go back to show us how the character got there.

The moment in media res it can be a whole chapter, just a few page scene, a sentence or several sentences. The essential is find the right scene. We explain it better with an example:

Imagine the story of Wizard of Oz and he thinks what if the story began with Dorothy showing off her red shoes and happily walking down a yellow brick road, happily singing. It's about a start in media res, it's true, but it will make the reader completely forget about curiosity and stop reading the book instantly, because he already knows how it ends.

For find a good scene in media resyou need to choose a time when the main character is at a very critical time.

Continuing with the previous example, the in media res of The Wizard of Oz could be the moment when a whole mass of people shouts at Dorothy "You have killed the witch, you are a murderer!" That is a very critical moment, because even though we don't know the character, we see that he is in real trouble and we want to know how he got there and if he really killed this witch.

Once we have finished narrating this scene, in a few pages, we can go back and start telling the story from the beginning, because the reader will already be hooked on the story and will not be able to take their eyes off the pages. Do you dare to try it?

Now you know what does it mean that a story begins in media res and how you can begin to apply this concept in your narratives. If you want to continue learning more writing resources, do not hesitate to consult our writing section, where we will accompany you on this exciting journey through the world of books.