The Domino Effect in Story Writing
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A domino is a small rectangular wood or plastic block that has a face divided into two squares with each square bearing an arrangement of dots resembling those on dice. The other side of each domino is blank or identically patterned. The word is derived from the Latin dominus (i.e. master of the house). The word came to be applied to a type of monastic hood, then to a costume consisting of a hooded robe worn with an eye mask at a masquerade, and finally to a set of these small blocks.
The domino effect refers to a situation in which a single small action triggers a chain reaction that impacts other aspects of your life or career. The idea of the domino effect is also used to describe how certain learning challenges can impact a student, much like one tiny piece of a large domino fall can cause a whole line to collapse.
When you write a story, it’s important to keep in mind the concept of the domino effect. If you start a scene with an action that runs counter to what readers think is logical, then the entire cascade of events is likely to fail. For example, if your hero decides to shoot a stranger, then it’s unlikely that other characters will support this action or even continue liking him as a hero.
One of the key ways to keep track of your character’s actions is to create a timeline of events for the scene. This is a way to ensure that the scene flows naturally and doesn’t get too tangled up. For this, you can use a tool like Scrivener to create a detailed outline of the scene and its connections to the scene ahead of it. This can help you weed out scenes that don’t add any dramatic tension or provide new information.
If you are a “pantser” writer who doesn’t prepare outlines of your plot, then you may find that your scenes don’t connect well with each other. Using the domino image can help you visualize how each scene works with the ones that come before it. For example, if you have a scene that shows the heroine uncovering clues to solve a case, then each scene after that should build upon that scene by providing more information about the situation or increasing tension.