In Media Res
A storytelling technique that drops the audience into the middle of the action, skipping the setup. The backstory fills in later, but the hook comes first.
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Origin
Latin for 'into the middle of things.' The technique was first codified by Horace in his Ars Poetica (c. 19 BC), where he praised Homer for plunging readers into the Iliad mid-action rather than starting at the beginning of the Trojan War. The technique has been a staple of epic storytelling from Virgil to modern cinema.
Updated February 22, 2026