The distance protection with inverse time characteristic is the best choice to solve the conflict between fast trip near the protecting relay and reliable trip at the end of protection zone. Because the distance acting zone presents the characteristic of two-dimensional zone， the policy of trip zone being enlarged step by step has been used to achieve inverse time effect of the distance relay. A novel method about distance relay with inverse time characteristic is presented in this paper， which introduces the idea of similar action zone. And a two-dimensional action zone with the similar figure as the original setting zone is firstly obtained based on the measured impedance， and which is mapped to a one-dimensional zoom factor on the basis of a reference point with the action origin being chosen in general. And then this zoom factor is used to form one action equation with inverse time characteristic. So a distance relay with continuous inverse time action characteristic is realized. The rationality of this method is proved in theory， and one proper project is presented combined with the R&D practice of distance protection devices. Lots of ATP simulation analysis shows that this method is feasible and effective.