The Domino Effect in Writing
Domino is a popular game of skill where you set up dominoes in an intricate pattern and then try to get them all to fall in the right order. You can build amazing structures like towers and pyramids, or you can make lines that form pictures when they fall. There are even games where players compete to see who can set up the most dominoes before they all topple over. The term domino also refers to any kind of chain reaction, such as a series of events that affect each other in a predictable way. For example, if one person starts to smoke, it might cause everyone in the room to start smoking as well. This is known as the Domino effect.
The domino effect is a concept that can be applied to a variety of situations, from a political crisis to an argument between two friends. It refers to a situation in which the impact of one event causes other events to follow suit, such as an explosion that leads to a fire or an argument that leads to another arguement and then to a fight and so on. In some cases, a domino effect can be very dramatic, while in others it might not have much of an impact at all.
A domino is a tile with an arrangement of dots, or “pips,” on its face. Each domino has a distinct identity on one side and is blank on the other, but some of the dominoes in a particular set have identical faces. Early dominoes were made to represent the different combinations of six-sided dice, and each domino was capable of being flipped over to reveal its corresponding number. The modern 32-piece Domino set was first developed in Europe in the mid-19th century, although Chinese domino sets with blank faces existed earlier.
When it comes to writing, the domino effect is a great way to think about how scenes work together in a story. If you are a pantser writer, that is, you don’t make detailed outlines of your plot ahead of time, this concept can help you see how each scene will naturally influence the one that comes after it.
For instance, if your character finds an important clue that should lead to the resolution of an argument, it’s important for that scene to come before the conflict in which the clue is revealed. Otherwise, the reader might be left with a sense that the plot is not progressing as it should.
The Domino effect can also be useful in explaining why a character does something that might seem immoral to some readers, such as shooting a stranger or having an affair. By providing a strong enough logic for the hero’s actions, you can allow readers to give the immoral action a pass or at least keep liking the character anyway. For example, in the X-Men comics, Domino’s luck powers allowed her to save Cable when he was being attacked by Skornn.