What is Domino?

Domino is a term used to describe any of 28 small oblong pieces with 0-6 pips on each end, used for playing the game of dominoes. In the game, players draw tiles from a stock (or boneyard) and place them edge-to-edge with other dominoes so that the adjacent faces form a specified total value, or a domino chain.

A more common use of the word is in reference to the domino effect – a phenomenon that describes how one event can lead to many more, sometimes catastrophic, events. The concept is most easily illustrated with the use of a line of dominoes, but it can be applied to almost any situation where a simple action causes another to occur.

Dominoes are a popular toy that children often play with. They can be stacked on end in long lines and when one is tipped over, it can cause the next domino to tip over and so on until all of the dominoes have fallen. Creating very complex designs with dominoes can be fun and educational.

The term domino has also been used to describe other kinds of chains or sequences of events. The most well-known examples are the sequence of events that led to the collapse of the Lehman Brothers in 2008 and the events that caused the U.S. to withdraw its support for the Ngo Dinh Diem regime in South Vietnam and Laos in 1961-62. This series of events is sometimes referred to as a domino theory, although the exact origins of this idea are unclear.

Another use of the term is to refer to the way in which some businesses seem to have a dominant position within their industry or market. For example, the pizza chain Domino’s has a large market share of the US pizza business and is able to leverage its branded product with the convenience of home delivery. This gives the company a competitive advantage that other pizza chains cannot enjoy.

Hevesh has created spectacular domino designs and has more than 2 million YouTube subscribers. She has worked on team projects involving thousands of dominoes and her largest displays can take several nail-biting minutes to fall. Hevesh believes that domino art can help people relax and enjoy themselves by demonstrating the beauty of simple, natural shapes.

As a writer, you can use the image of the domino to consider how your scenes fit together in your plot. If you are a pantser – that is, you don’t make detailed outlines of your plot ahead of time – you can still use the domino analogy to guide your writing: each scene should logically impact the scene that comes before it. If it does not, your readers will likely get confused or bored. Using tools such as scene cards and Scrivener can help you ensure that your scenes are domino-ready. Using these tools can also help you weed out any unnecessary or repetitive scenes that will confuse your readers.