Zooming is a common writing skill especially used in descriptive writing that gives the reader the feeling of moving through space towards or away from a character or object. It can be divided into two types, zooming in and zooming out.
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Zooming in
When zooming in, the storyteller guides the reader to follow his/her point of view. At the start, it is usually an aerial shot of the fictional world, giving a bird's eye view of the place. The writer then delimits the reader's scope and finally leads the reader to the object of focus, or the focalised object. Since the introduction of the object is suspended, the ending may be surprising. It is known as a surprise ending.
Zooming out
When zooming out, an object is focused first. Then, the writer widens the view of the reader and eventually introduces the overview of the fictional world. It can give the reader a general idea of the place.
Other uses
Zooming is a cinematic technique widely used in films. For example, it was used in the film Forrest Gump.