If you’re a novelist looking to bring your story to life, it’s important for you to learn about playing with narrative distance. Playing with narrative distance may sound like an abstract term, but actually you can just think of it as a camera lens that zooms in and out, allowing you to reveal your imagined world from both a closeup and a pulled back perspective.

What is narrative distance?

Narrative distance is the space between your readers and your characters. In some moments, you’ll want your readers to be right next to (or even in the shoes of) your characters, letting them see what they are seeing, hear what they are hearing, smell what they are smelling, and even give them access to what your characters are thinking. At other times, you might pull back and look at the bigger picture, giving your reader a wider sense of the world around them, or a sense of distance from a situation.

The best part? By learning how to play with this narrative distance, you can enhance your storytelling and control the emotional tone of your scenes.

Zooming In: Getting Close to Your Character

When you zoom in on your character, you’re getting so close that you can feel their emotions, sense the world around them, and even hear the thoughts racing through their mind. This deep connection allows your reader to become immersed in the character’s inner world, creating intimacy and empathy, and ensuring your readers are really invested, and really engaged.

So, how do you pull off this technique? Here are a couple of ways:

1. Focus on Sensory Details:

Describe what the character is experiencing through their senses. What are they touching, seeing, smelling, or hearing? When you zoom in, these details will feel more immediate and personal. Take care not to use filter words like heard, saw, observed, realised, felt. The example I always give is this:
He heard a dog bark – this is telling your readers that your character can hear a dog bark.
A dog barked – this is showing your readers that a dog is barking, and lets them hear it for themselves.

2. Use Deep Point of View/Free Indirect Speech

Instead of narrating events from a distance, let the character’s voice dominate. Free indirect speech (FIS) lets your character’s thoughts flow directly onto the page, blending the point of view character’s thoughts with the narrative.

For example:
He wondered whether it was going to rain or snow, and couldn’t work out what was going on with the weather. This is telling us that the character is wondering what is going on. This is distant – it’s being described to us.
“What is going on with the weather?” he wondered. “Is it going to rain? Or snow?” This is closer, showing us what he is thinking, using direct thought.
What on earth was going on with the weather? Was it going to rain? Or snow? This is really up close – you are inside the character’s head, experiencing his inner dialogue.

This makes readers feel like they’re experiencing everything right alongside your character, in real time.

Zooming Out: Creating a Broader View

When you zoom out, you shift your focus away from your character’s personal experience and move it to the world around them. This technique is great for providing context or setting the scene, or moving things on quickly using a summary of events. You can reveal the landscape, describe a bustling city street, or show how your character fits into a bigger picture. By pulling back, you allow your readers to see how everything connects.

Here are some methods to zoom out effectively:

1. Shift to a Larger Scope

Instead of focusing on the character’s immediate emotions, show the setting, the environment, or the larger conflict at play. This gives the reader a bird’s-eye view of what’s happening.

2. Multiple Points of View

If you’re writing in third person, switching to a different character’s perspective can offer a more detached view of the situation. You might show how your main character’s actions fit into the greater plot, or how others are reacting to the same event.

3. Use Abstract Descriptions

Rather than describing things from a personal perspective, you can make use of broader, more abstract descriptions. For instance, instead of saying “She was nervous,” you might describe the stormy weather or the sense of unease in the room.

Example showing the difference, using a Romance/Fantasy extract

Firstly, zoomed out:
The evening air was crisp, with a hint of magic that hung in the wind. Tall, dark trees stretched out over the path, their branches almost seeming to whisper in the fading light. The world around her felt both vast and unknown, as if time itself had stopped for just a moment.

And then zoomed in:
The cold air bit at her skin, but it was the magic that sent a shiver down her spine. Her heart raced, maybe from the chill or maybe from the strangeness that lingered in the air – something ancient, something powerful. She reached out, fingertips brushing the rough bark of the nearest tree, and for a brief moment, the whispering winds seemed to speak directly to her.

Why Does Narrative Distance Matter?

Why you should bother with all this shifting of perspective? Using both close and wide narrative distances allows you to control how your reader experiences your story. Close-ups build tension, emotional depth, and connection, while wide shots offer a sense of scale, context, and anticipation.

This is especially important when your novel involves complex emotional journeys (romance; romantasy) or grand, sweeping adventures (fantasy; romantasy; sci-fi). By manipulating narrative distance, you can heighten the emotional stakes in romantic scenes or make the fantasy world feel larger and more immersive.

How to Use Narrative Distance in Your Writing

If you want to play with narrative distance in your fiction, try writing the same scene using both techniques. Start with a zoomed-in, deeply personal moment, and rewrite the scene, giving your readers a bigger perspective by pulling the camera back. This will help you learn how to switch between the two as you write, enhancing the experience for your readers.

Whether you’re writing the first kiss of your romantic fantasy, or the moment your character realises their destiny, changing your narrative distance will help you craft a more dynamic and engaging story.

Final Tip for Playing With Narrative Distance

Don’t be afraid to experiment with these techniques within one scene. You don’t have to stick to one narrative distance throughout a scene or a chapter. The beauty of storytelling is that you can zoom in for those intimate moments and then pull back to reveal the bigger picture. Your readers will thank you for it! If you’d like support with your manuscript please do get in touch.

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But what is free indirect speech, why does it matter, and how does it improve reader engagement?

What Is Free Indirect Speech (FIS)?

Free indirect speech is a narrative technique that blends direct speech (what a character says) and indirect speech (what the narrator reports). Instead of clearly marking thoughts or dialogue with quotation marks or reporting verbs, free indirect speech slips into a character’s mind while maintaining the narrator’s voice.

For example:

• Direct speech:
  “I can’t believe he left me,” Kay said.
• Direct thought:
  “I can’t believe he left me,” Kay thought.
• Free indirect speech:
  How could he have left her? How dare he? After everything she had done!

Notice how the last version feels more immediate. We’re in Kay’s head, but the narration still flows naturally. The result is intimacy without breaking the rhythm of storytelling.

Why Writers Use Free Indirect Speech

Writers use FIS to create a closer bond between the reader and the character. It does several things at once:

• It keeps narration fluid while sneaking in personal thoughts.
• It allows for subtle shifts between an outside perspective and inner emotion.
• It helps avoid clunky tags like “she thought” or “he wondered”.
• It mirrors real human experience – we don’t narrate our own thoughts formally, we just think them.

This technique is especially powerful in novels where you want your characters to be accessible and easy to read – such as YA, for example.

How Free Indirect Speech Enhances Reader Engagement

How does FIS get readers properly engaged?

1. It Builds Emotional Connection

When readers can “hear” a character’s inner voice, they empathise more deeply. Instead of being told that a character is sad, angry, or delighted, we feel it in real time.

2. It Improves the Flow

Rather than pausing the story with clunky phrases like she thought that…, FIS slides naturally into the character’s perspective. The pacing stays smooth, keeping readers hooked.

3. It Feels Natural

We rarely experience life in neatly packaged sentences. Our minds skip, judge, and exclaim. FIS captures that messy reality, making characters feel more human.

Examples of Free Indirect Speech in Action

Let’s look at some made-up examples to see how it works.

• Direct speech: “This house is enormous,” Tom said.
• Direct thought: “This house is enormous,” Tom thought.
• FIS: This house was enormous!

Here’s another:

• Direct speech: “I’m not nervous,” Mia whispered.
• FIS: She wasn’t nervous. Not nervous at all.

These examples show how FIS pulls us inside the character’s mind without breaking narrative immersion.

Practical Tips for Writers

If you’re a writer looking to use FIS, here are some strategies:

1. Keep an eye on quotation marks. They signal direct speech, which might break the effect.
2. Use the character’s vocabulary. Narration should slip into their voice – a teenager’s inner thoughts will sound different from a professor’s.
3. Blend seamlessly. Don’t announce thoughts with “she thought”. Just let them emerge in the flow.

Common Pitfalls to Watch Out For

Like any technique, free indirect speech can be misused. Be mindful of these traps:

• Overuse. If every sentence slips into a character’s head, readers may lose track of the bigger picture.
• Confusion. Make sure it’s clear whose perspective we’re inhabiting – otherwise readers get disorientated.
• Tense. The tense of the FIS needs to match the tense of the narrative. So if your novel is written in the past tense, the free indirect speech needs to also be in the past tense. If it was direct thought, it would be in the present tense, the same as dialogue.

Why Readers Love It

Readers may not consciously recognise FIS, but they feel its effects. They stay engaged because:

• The narrative feels alive.
• Characters feel real, flawed, and relatable.
• The reading experience feels immersive – almost like eavesdropping on someone’s thoughts.

In other words, FIS gives readers exactly what they want: a chance to step into another consciousness and see the world differently.

Final Thoughts

Free indirect speech is one of the most powerful tools a writer can use to engage readers. By blending narration with inner voice, it creates intimacy, immediacy, and subtlety. Don’t forget that your editor can help you to include more free indirect speech in your writing. If you want more information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

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