The Domino Effect and How Dominoes Can Affect a Novel
Domino is a popular game that involves laying down dominoes so their exposed ends match and then scoring points by the number of matching pairs. A tile with a blank side is called a wild domino and can be used for any value. Some games have rules for combining the tiles into lines that match in length or in direction. A player wins the game when all of his or her dominoes are out and no one can score any more points.
The word domino comes from the Latin, dominus, meaning master. It was later borrowed into French as dominie and English as domino. The game first appeared in Britain in the 18th Century, where it was likely introduced via French prisoners of war and quickly became a popular fad in inns and taverns. A number of different games using dominoes are played worldwide.
As the first domino falls, it transforms potential energy into kinetic energy that carries over to the next domino and gives it the push it needs to fall. This process continues until all the dominoes are knocked over. Domino effect is a term often used by novelists to describe the way a plot point can cause a chain reaction that has unforeseen effects, such as a character’s death or a major event.
When it comes to writing novels, writers should consider their scene dominoes as the plot beats they need to advance the story. They should also think of the underlying story structure as the foundation, like an arch that supports a building. The scene dominoes are the building blocks of a story, and they work best when they are laid out in a clear order and linked together to form a logical progression.
Dominoes can be arranged in straight lines, curved lines that form pictures, grids that make up patterns, stacked walls, and 3D structures like towers and pyramids. Some are built on the ground while others are suspended overhead. The art of creating such designs is as complex as the laws of physics that govern them.
Hevesh, a professional domino artist whose YouTube channel has more than 2 million subscribers, has created mind-blowing installations that take several nail-biting minutes to tumble according to the laws of physics. Hevesh’s biggest projects involve more than 300,000 dominoes and take days to set up.
In her work, Hevesh follows a version of the engineering-design process that begins with considering the theme or purpose of an installation. Then, she brainstorms images or words that might represent the idea. Finally, she draws a layout that includes arrows to indicate the direction in which she wants the dominoes to fall.
While it is possible to buy sets of dominoes made of plastic, many people prefer the look and feel of natural materials. Historically, domino sets have been made of bone (including silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell, or mother-of-pearl), ivory, and dark hardwoods such as ebony. They have a heavier weight and feel to them than polymer sets, which can give them a more substantial and authentic feeling.