How Easily Can You Enter A Story?

I hate to get into a series partway through (be it book, television, movie, video game, etc.). I always feel like I am going to miss out on major, important parts of the story. Invariably, though, I do start a series in the middle. What's interesting, though, is that I usually don't have that much trouble with it.

I can figure out who characters are, their relationships, their goals, their problems. It requires a bit of work at first, but once it's in place, it's not much different than if you had started it at the beginning.

Part of being able to do that is the understanding that there are certain requirements in a story (characters, setting, plot) and that if you can fill in those blanks, you're good to go. This functions just like in medias res, but it's not on purpose.

As an audience member, you sometimes get put into this situation, even if you don't intend to (think about every conversation you've walked into in the middle of). Rather than ask a million questions to try to orient yourself, just go with it and figure out as you go along.

As a writer, make sure that your story can be entered from any point. This generally doesn't require conscious effort as long as your story is focused and everything ties together at the end. But, if things do start getting convoluted, or if you keep changing perspectives, it is good to find ways to reorient your readers by slipping in references to what happened earlier so as to explain why people are doing what they're doing now.