Domino, the cousin of playing cards, is a game and toy that has been enjoyed by people of all ages for centuries. People like to line up the dominoes in long rows and then knock them down. Some people even make artistic creations using dominoes. Domino is also a term used in business to refer to any event or action that sets off a chain reaction with other events and actions.
The word domino comes from the Latin word domini, meaning “he who leads.” It was also a nickname for a person who controlled a group of slaves or inmates in a prison. In modern English, it has come to mean any one who has power or influence over others. Domino’s, a chain of pizza restaurants, is well known for its innovative use of technology to allow customers to order their food by text message or through devices like Amazon Echo. Domino’s has also been successful in using data analytics to improve its business operations and increase profits.
A domino is a rectangular piece of wood or another material with one to six small spots or pips on it. These pips are usually arranged in a circle but can be in other patterns, such as lines or dots. In the early days of the game, the pips represented the results of throwing two six-sided dice. Later, the markings on a domino were changed to represent Arabic numerals. Today, most dominoes are made of plastic or some other durable material.
In the past, dominoes were crafted from wood or other materials, and many people still like to create art with them. Some artists make curved lines, grids that form pictures when the dominoes fall, or 3D structures such as towers and pyramids. Some even paint their dominoes to make them look more colorful.
Aside from being used for decorative purposes, dominoes are most often used to play games. Most commonly, players take turns placing a domino in front of an opponent until either all of the player’s dominoes have been played or the opponent cannot play anymore. The player then wins the game by claiming all of the remaining pieces.
Some games involve blocking, where players try to prevent their opponents from playing. Others are scoring games, where the players count the pips on their dominoes to determine who wins. Some domino games are adaptations of card games, and they were once popular in certain areas to circumvent religious proscriptions against playing cards.
Thinking of your plot beats in terms of the domino effect may help you keep track of them. If you write like a pantser, without making detailed outlines of your scenes ahead of time, then the domino image can help you weed out scenes that don’t add tension or logically impact the scene that follows it. Likewise, if you find that your story is starting to fall out of shape, the domino effect can help you fix it.
