Domino is an ancient game of strategy and chance, played with one or more dominoes, each of which has a number of spots (or “pips”) on one side. When a domino is tipped over, it triggers a chain reaction that continues until all the pieces have fallen and the game is over. As a writer, you can think of your novel in a similar way: each scene is like a single domino that, when tipped over, causes the next scene to fall into place. It’s not easy to create this effect, however, especially if you want the plot to feel organic and natural. In this article, we’ll show you how to use the power of the domino effect in your story.
Lily Hevesh started playing with her grandparents’ 28-piece set of dominoes at age 9. She loved the challenge of setting them up in straight or curved lines, flicking the first piece and watching the entire line fall, one by one. In her teens, she started creating mind-blowing domino setups for movie sets and events, and her YouTube channel now has over 2 million subscribers.
Hevesh works with complex domino setups that often take several nail-biting minutes to complete. Her most impressive installations involve up to 300,000 dominoes and have set a Guinness world record. To accomplish these feats, she relies on a version of the engineering-design process: She considers the theme or purpose of an installation, brainstorms images or words that might be used, and then tests out ideas to see what they look like in practice.
When she’s working on a new project, Hevesh also studies the history of dominoes to get inspiration. She has learned that the most important aspect of a good domino set is how the dominoes are arranged, and she spends significant time experimenting with different configurations before settling on a design. She has also found that the speed of the dominoes can impact how they fall, and she tries to match the flow of the plot to this factor.
The best dominoes have the right amount of friction and weight to ensure that they tip over without much force. The same is true of a good story: the best scenes are like dominoes that flip over with minimal resistance.
As we’ve seen, the domino effect can be powerful in many contexts, from business to politics. For example, Domino’s Pizza CEO Tom Monaghan knew that if his company had a better delivery system, it would be easier for customers to get their favorite pizza. So he tried something revolutionary: he sent himself into one of his restaurants undercover to see how the workers were doing and what they needed to improve their work experience.
The results were a series of domino effects that led to changes at the company, including more flexible dress codes and leadership training for employees. This is a great example of the domino effect in action, as it helped the company grow and remain competitive with other pizza companies.