Day: September 17, 2024
The Domino Effect in Fiction
Domino A flat, thumbsized, rectangular block with a face divided into two parts, each bearing from one to six pips or dots: 28 such dominoes form a complete set. The most common set contains double-six dominoes, but many other variants are available. Also known as bones, cards, men, tiles, or stones, dominoes are used in various games to score points by laying them edge-to-edge so that the numbers (or blanks) on the exposed ends match: two one’s touch each other, three two’s touch each other, four three’s touch each other, and so on. When playing dominoes, a player must play all his or her tiles before calling “domino.” Domino’s Pizza In the late 1970s, Domino’s founder Tom Monaghan was listening to his customers. They told him that they loved the pizza, but they wished the company would deliver it to their homes and offices. To meet this demand, Monaghan hired a young inventor named Jim Doyle to come up with an innovative solution. Doyle’s idea was to use a modified automobile as a delivery vehicle for the pizza. This was no small task, but he took it on. He consulted with crowd-sourced auto designers and created the Domino’s Pizza Delivery Car, or DXP, which was both a pizza warmer and a Domino’s pizza carrier. This unique and efficient design allowed Domino’s to deliver their pizzas in 30 minutes or less, which was a big part of the company’s marketing campaign at the time. The Domino Effect As a writer, plotting your novel isn’t just about the actions that take place in each scene, it’s also about what happens next. You have to make sure your scenes logically connect and that the emotional beats of each character’s shift work well together. One of the best ways to do this is to use the concept of the domino effect. The domino effect refers to a chain reaction in which something that starts off small causes other, larger things to fall over. This is a great way to visualize the way a story develops, and it’s especially useful in fiction. A good way to test your story’s domino effect is to write out the end of each scene and then turn back in time to see if the events of the next scene logically connect with those that came before it. If you’ve ever played with dominoes, you’ve probably seen this happen firsthand – and experienced the magic of this effect! Today’s Wonder of the Day was inspired by Juan.
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