Using the Domino Effect to Create Suspense in Your Novel

Domino’s Pizza is one of the largest food delivery companies in the world. They are best known for their pizza, but they also offer appetizers, pastas, sandwiches, and cakes. They have more than 20,000 stores worldwide and employ more than 170,000 people. Domino’s also offers online ordering and delivery services.

When most people think of domino, they think of a game in which you place tiles on a flat surface and then carefully tip the first one so that it knocks over all of the others. Then, the entire chain of dominoes continues to fall in a rhythmic pattern. This same concept can be applied to a story. When you write a novel, you must consider how each scene in your story will affect the scenes that follow it. Whether you are a pantser who writes off the cuff or a plotter who uses outlines and Scrivener, thinking about your story in terms of domino can help you create a more compelling and coherent narrative.

For the uninitiated, a domino is a rectangular tile with either a blank side or one to six spots. The spots are called pips. A traditional double-six set contains 28 dominoes that are shuffled together to form a stock or boneyard, from which each player draws seven tiles at the beginning of the game. Once the players draw their tiles, they are placed on-edge so that each player can see their own but not their opponent’s.

In fiction, the domino effect can be a powerful tool for creating suspense. For example, a character may be trying to avoid a confrontation with an antagonist when that person suddenly appears. The antagonist’s presence can disrupt the character’s plans and cause him or her to react in a way that changes the course of the story.

The ability to control chance is a major characteristic of Domino’s powers. She can subliminally and telekinetically initiate random psionic acts that change probability in her favor, giving her good luck while making her opponents have bad luck. Using her powers, she has caused everything from an enemy’s equipment failure to shutting down a nuclear reactor overload.

Although she was born with this ability, Domino is unable to control it consciously. It is activated when she participates in actions that could be harmed by her own luck, such as fighting or running away. For instance, when she stopped a cemetery to deliver flowers on behalf of Wolverine and came across Spiral, Chimera, and Lady Deathstrike, Dom was able to knock them all out before they could kill Jean Grey.