Why You Should Start In The Middle

Analysis of "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown

📖 The Da Vinci Code is the definition of a page-turner.

💰 Dan Brown’s second installment in his Robert Langdon thriller series became a global sensation when published in 2003. It’s one of the best-selling books of all time.

✍️ I studied The Da Vinci Code and discovered the page-turning techniques that you can apply to your own writing.

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My analysis is broken into five posts:

Part 1: How to hook readers BEFORE your first sentence

Part 2: Why you should start in the middle

Part 3: The trick to creating a compelling supporting character

Part 4: The power of short chapters

Part 5: How to make readers feel like they’re IN your book

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Here is Part 2:

Don’t make readers wait for the good stuff.

Jump into the middle of the action.

Dan Brown does this in The Da Vinci Code with the first sentence of the prologue:

Renowned curator Jacques Saunière staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum’s Grand Gallery.

In one sentence we already have a:

1. Character

2. Setting

3. Something happening

The reader is pulled straight into the story and asking:

Why is the curator staggering through the museum? Is he in danger?

No time is wasted with a:

• Detailed background of the character

• Intricate description of the setting

Readers don’t need either of those yet.

To hook them, we need to prioritize revealing the conflict in the scene.

We want them consumed with the character’s situation and whether or not he’ll be able to get out.

Imagine if Dan Brown had started in a different way:

“Jacques Saunière had been the curator of the Louvre for over ten years. He enjoyed his daily commute through the streets of Paris. The museum itself opened in 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings. It was a dark and stormy night when a stranger appeared, causing Sauniére to stagger through the Grand Gallery in an attempt to escape.”

It’s boring.

If you were browsing in a store, you’d probably put the book back on the shelf.

To hook readers, give them the basics—

And throw them into the middle of the action.

The prologue continues with the murder of Jacques Saunière inside the museum.

The scene is the defining event of the story and shapes everything that happens next, despite not really revealing any information about the victim.

Remember: Readers turn the page because they have questions, not answers.

So introduce conflict as soon as possible and make them NEED to see what happens next.

Here are 12 ways to start your story in the middle of the ACTION (with examples):

1. With a murder (like in The Da Vinci Code):

   1. Brighton Rock by Graham Greene

      1. “Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him.”

2. While your character is being chased:

   1. The Gunslinger by Stephen King

      1. “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

3. As a fire blazes:

   1. Blood Rites by Jim Butcher

      1. “The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault.”

4. Right as drugs are kicking in:

   • Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

     • "We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.”

5. During an intense negotiation:

   1. Crimes of Cunning by Tony Mayo

      1. “I reminded myself that we were in a well-lit office, not a dark alley.”

6. During an execution:

   1. Wool by Hugh Howey

      1. “The children were playing while Holston climbed to his death.”

7. Getting arrested:

   1. Killing Floor by Lee Child

      1. “I was arrested in Eno’s diner.”

8. At the moment of a realization:

   1. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

      1. “The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.”

9. Transformed into something else:

   1. Metamorphosis by Frank Kafka

      1. “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.”

10. About to get shot:

    1. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

       1. "Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die."

11. About to get stabbed:

    1. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

       1. "There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife."

12. With a mixture of humor and suspense:

    1. Broken by Don Winslow:

       1. "No one knows how the chimp got the revolver."

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Continue reading the other parts of The Da Vinci Code analysis:

Part 1: How to hook readers BEFORE your first sentence

Part 2: Why you should start in the middle

Part 3: The trick to creating a compelling supporting character

Part 4: The power of short chapters

Part 5: How to make readers feel like they’re IN your book

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