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The Domino Effect in Fiction

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jointhex

Dominoes are small flat rectangular blocks used to play games of chance or skill. They are usually made of wood or plastic and are also referred to as bones, pieces, men, or stones. They are placed in careful sequence and then a little nudge can cause them to all fall over at once. The domino effect can be used literally or metaphorically and is often referred to when discussing the chain reaction of one event impacting many others.

Some learning challenges impact students like falling dominoes. Trying to compensate for the challenge by teaching more advanced skills can result in the student becoming overloaded with information and cognitively overwhelmed. This overload can cause the compensation skills to be pushed on top of basic needs, which can then push those basic needs to the side and lead to the domino effect of failure.

In fiction, the domino effect is a way to set up a series of events that are linked and impact each other in a predictable way. The main purpose of a plot is to answer the question, what happens next? The domino effect is an excellent way to develop this question in a dramatic and engaging manner. The more you know about the domino effect, the easier it will be to use in your writing.

The albino mutant Neena (Dominique Moran) was born at the U.S. government’s Project Armageddon to genetically engineer the perfect weapon using a precognitive mutant surrogate, Beatrice, as the model. When the experiment was abandoned, Neena was taken into the care of a Chicago priest and became Domino when her mutant emotion-controlling powers manifested at age 13. A career mercenary, she joined Xavier’s X-Corporation in its Hong Kong branch and hindered John Sublime’s Third Species mutant organ harvesting movement. She has also fought alongside the X-Men and battled the time-traveling mutant Cable.

Plotting a novel can be difficult, especially if you’re a pantser. If you write the manuscript off the cuff without a detailed outline, it’s easy to have scenes that don’t connect with those that came before them or are at the wrong angle. Taking the domino image into consideration can help you avoid these mistakes and create a cohesive storyline. Whether you’re using an arc-style outline or an application like Scrivener, thinking about the domino effect can help you weed out unnecessary scenes and improve your overall narrative.

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