A domino is a small rectangular piece of wood or plastic with a number or blank on one end and a line of holes (called “pips”) on the other. When stacked on end in long rows, dominoes can be tipped over to start a chain reaction. Eventually, the entire row of dominoes will fall over. Dominos can be arranged in many different ways to make intricate patterns, and people often create domino art. They can be used to make pictures, words or numbers.
Some people use them to play games like the popular board game Monopoly. In this game, players try to get rid of all their dominoes before their opponents do. Regardless of the game, dominoes can be a fun way to spend time with family and friends.
When Hevesh first started creating her mind-blowing domino installations, she would simply wing it, experimenting with shapes and lines until she found something that looked cool. Now, she follows a sort of engineering-design process that helps her plan out her projects. She thinks about the theme or purpose of the installation and brainstorms images or words that could be incorporated into it. She may even draw a rough sketch to help her visualize it before she starts creating the actual layout.
Most people know how to play the simplest domino game: You place the dominoes on the table in a line and then you “play” them by laying down a single domino next to another domino so that the number or blanks match each other. You continue in this manner until all the dominoes are lined up and ready to be tipped over.
The basic rules of most domino games are based on the same principle, but there are also many different ways to arrange them and score. For example, some people play a game where the players lay down doubles at right angles to each other and then count the number of sides on each exposed end (e.g., all one’s touching or all two’s touching). If the total number of ends on the exposed dominoes is a multiple of five, that player scores that amount.
In fiction, it’s important for a story to have an overall “domino effect.” This means that the scenes in your novel should logically connect and build upon each other. If you have a scene in your novel that doesn’t advance the plot, doesn’t set up a new conflict or tension, or doesn’t evoke a strong emotional response from the reader, then it probably needs to be revised or cut. Whether you are a pantser who writes off the cuff or a plotter who uses tools like Scrivener to help you construct an outline, thinking about how to incorporate the domino effect into your work can improve your craft. Just remember to nudge each scene a little bit at a time! If you push too hard, the whole sequence will crash down.