Domino is a word that refers to any of the many games played with pieces called dominoes, also known as bones, chips, tickets, or chits. Usually, a domino set contains 28 pieces, each bearing one to six pips or dots on their ends. A player draws tiles from a stack, called the boneyard, and lays them down in lines or angular patterns to play a game. In addition to the basic domino game, players can also compete to build structures out of the tiles.
A physics study in 1983 demonstrated that dominoes can actually be used to knock down objects about twice as tall, but that kind of domino effect is not the focus of today’s Wonder of the Day. The Domino Effect is all about a chain reaction. As each domino falls, it transfers its potential energy to the next domino in line. That energy provides the push needed to knock over the second domino, and the process continues until all of the dominoes have fallen.
Hevesh is a professional domino artist who creates stunning domino setups for films, TV shows, events, and even album launches (her largest Dominoes were laid down for Katy Perry). She builds her dominoes by hand using a technique called “painting with light.” To make her designs, she first envisions an image or idea and then sketches it on paper. She then applies a layer of paint to the top of each domino to help guide its placement. Hevesh often makes several test versions of a section before putting it all together. This helps her ensure that all of the pieces work properly.
The most common domino sets contain 28 tiles that are numbered from 1 to 6. Each domino has a set of six matching ends, and the number on each end corresponds to a suit (for example, the suit of threes). Some people choose to expand their domino sets by adding additional ends with more pips, making progressively larger numbers of tiles available. Larger dominoes can be used to play a variety of blocking or scoring games.
Whether you write your story off the cuff or carefully plot it out, the goal is to build a story that keeps readers interested and engaged with what happens next. In a novel, the pace must be just right so that scenes advance the hero’s journey without feeling overlong or too short (like a domino that is either too big or too small). The same goes for story settings and actions. In each scene, the hero must move closer to or farther from a goal.