A structural approach that opens the story in the middle of the action and fills in the backstory later, hooking the reader from the first page.
In medias res structure builds an entire narrative around the technique of beginning in the middle of events. Rather than following chronological order, the story opens at a moment of high drama or tension, then circles back to fill in how the characters got there. This is different from simply using in medias res as an opening technique. When it becomes a structural principle, the entire story is shaped by the interplay between 'what is happening now' and 'what happened before,' creating two timelines that converge at a critical moment.
Starting in the middle is one of the most reliable ways to grab a reader's attention immediately. But when you extend it into a full structural approach, it does something deeper: it turns the backstory itself into a source of suspense. The reader is not just wondering 'what happens next?' but also 'what already happened to get us here?' That double layer of curiosity is incredibly powerful and can transform a straightforward plot into something much more compelling.
The original in medias res. Homer drops us into the ninth year of the Trojan War, skipping the war's beginning entirely. We learn the backstory through dialogue and flashback.
The novel opens with the narrator held at gunpoint at the top of a building, then rewinds to tell the entire story leading to that moment. The structure turns the opening into a promise the story spends 200 pages fulfilling.
The narrator reveals in the prologue that he and his friends killed a classmate. The rest of the novel is not a whodunit but a how-and-why, structured entirely around that opening disclosure.
What appears to be an in medias res opening with flashbacks turns out to be something far more structurally complex, using the audience's assumption about chronology as a narrative weapon.
If you are going to drop the reader into the middle, it needs to be genuinely gripping. A mildly tense conversation is not worth the structural complexity. Choose a moment that makes the reader desperate to know how things got this bad.
Once you hook the reader with a dramatic opening, the flashback sections need to be just as engaging. Build their own tensions and mysteries so they do not feel like a detour from the good stuff.
If your story's actual beginning is boring, rearranging the timeline will not fix the problem. It will just delay it. Make sure every part of the story earns its place.
Use clear signals to orient the reader: different tenses, chapter headings, distinct settings, or formatting cues. The reader should always know where and when they are.
Write the most dramatic scene from a story idea you are working on. Make it vivid and full of unanswered questions. Then write the scene that chronologically comes before it, answering one question while raising two more. Keep going backward, writing three to four scenes total. Now you have the raw material for an in medias res structure. Rearrange the scenes so the dramatic one comes first.