Domino is a game in which players build lines of dominoes, or rectangular tiles with dots on each side, to form shapes such as triangles and rectangles. The player who completes the shape scores points, while other players score as they pass over the completed dominoes. Domino is a popular pastime that can be enjoyed by all ages.
Domino was invented in the 1850s by a German-American businessman named Richard D. Monaghan, who began franchising his pizzerias in 1967. Monaghan’s key to success was placing his stores in locations near colleges, where many young people could be found. This strategy helped the company to develop a loyal customer base and to establish a reputation for fast pizza delivery.
The word domino is derived from the Latin verb dominum, meaning “to rule.” The ancient Greeks also used a similar word, demonos, to describe a chain of events. This was later translated into English as a falling domino effect, which means that one event can trigger a series of other events. The term can be applied to both a physical and a political scenario, as when President Eisenhower famously cited the idea to explain how Communist expansion would continue if America did not intervene in South Vietnam.
In addition to blocking and scoring games, dominoes can be played in a variety of other ways. Some are adaptations of card games and were often popular in places where religious proscriptions against playing cards prohibited their use. For example, a variation of Concentration is commonly played with a double-six set, with one point scored for each time the sum of two adjacent dominoes can be divided by five or three (e.g., eight and four makes twelve).
A medical example of a domino effect is the spread of infection among hospital patients. This phenomenon is called a nosocomial infection, and it can result from a variety of causes, including negligence by the medical staff or simply because the patient does not wash their hands after leaving the bathroom.
In the same way that Dominoes must be spaced correctly if they are to cascade successfully, stories need scenes that advance the plot and make sense. If a scene is too long or too short, it can bog down the pace of the story and feel out of place at key points of discovery or tension. If a writer uses an outline or a writing tool such as Scrivener to help them plot, they can avoid a domino effect by making sure that their scenes are well-paced. If they are a pantser, that is, they do not follow an outline and work out the plot in detail ahead of time, they can weed out scenes that do not advance the story or are at the wrong angle by using simple scene cards.