You’ve probably seen the videos of people building a domino line—tipping over one just-so piece causes the rest to fall in an amazing cascade. That’s what the term “domino effect” means: any action that has a rippling impact on other actions. This applies to the way our lives work, too. It can be a good thing when it comes to our physical health, but a bad thing in the way we interact with others. For example, when Jennifer Dukes Lee started making her bed every day, it had a domino-like effect on the rest of her home life. Now, she is more likely to make other small changes. These are what we call identity-based habits—those that help us build who we are.
Domino is also the name of a family of games played with a set of small rectangular blocks, called tiles, that are arranged to form a line with a central square and numbered from left to right. The squares are normally twice as long as they are wide, and the number of dots (often referred to as pips) on each side determines the value of the tile. The most common variant, called a double-six set, has 28 tiles in total, which are shuffled and rearranged to form the stock or boneyard before play begins. The rules of domino differ from game to game, but most involve emptying your hand while blocking opponents’ play and scoring points by matching a value in the remaining tiles. Many of these games are adaptations of card games that were once popular to circumvent religious proscriptions against the use of cards.
There are also domino games that involve matching a single tile to another, either by value or color. These types of games can be a great educational tool for teaching basic counting skills and other important mathematical concepts.
The word domino is also used as a surname and for the name of several organizations, products, and cities. It imparts a sense of authority and control and is an attractive choice for businesses that want to convey a professional image.
For writers, thinking of the story you are writing as a series of dominos can be a useful metaphor for organizing your scenes and creating logical effects. If a scene isn’t adding tension or creating a new perspective on the story, then it may be redundant or unnecessary. It is a good idea to weed out these scenes before they become too dominant and distract from the story’s overall goal.
Similarly, if a scene is a repeat of something readers have already seen in your novel, then it won’t hold their attention. That’s why it is so important to plot your story ahead of time, if you can—even for pantsers who prefer not to use outlines or Scrivener. And remember, even the best plan can get derailed by unexpected events. But that’s what makes the domino effect so exciting! It’s impossible to predict when that final domino will fall.