Dominoes are cousins to playing cards and dice, and one of the oldest games in existence. They’re also the basis of many different games, including building complex domino setups and knocking them over. The markings on the tiles, known as pips, originally represented the results of throwing two six-sided dice.

A domino is a rectangular tile marked with a number of pips or dots. It is the most basic piece in a set of dominoes, and it is used to mark the starting position for other pieces in a game. A domino set consists of at least 28 tiles. A set is complete if it has every single possible combination of tiles, and the number of pips or dots on a tile indicates its value in the game.

When it comes to writing, domino constructions and story plotting have much in common. Like dominoes, a story needs to be laid out in the right way to achieve its goal, and the scenes must be properly spaced to work together. Whether you write on the fly, without an outline or use a tool like Scrivener to help you out, every scene in your story is a domino that should impact the one that follows it.

Hevesh began creating mind-blowing domino setups as a child, and she continues to expand her skills. She now has more than 2 million YouTube subscribers and works on domino projects for movies, TV shows, and events—including a Katy Perry album launch. Her largest creations involve 300,000 dominoes and take several nail-biting minutes to fall.

In the beginning, Domino’s founder Tom Monaghan was determined to make his pizza delivery promise. He opened the first Domino’s store in Ypsilanti, Michigan and positioned his pizza shops near college campuses so that students would get their pizza quickly. While the strategy worked, it was also costly, as Domino’s had to hire drivers who often drove recklessly in order to meet their 30-minute delivery window.

When you’re creating your own novel, each scene should build upon the one before it in a logical way and raise the tension and stakes for the hero. If a scene doesn’t advance the plot or cause the hero to move farther from or closer to their goal, it’s not doing its job.

The same is true for nonfiction. If you write a book on science, for example, each scene should support the overall thesis of your argument. Each scene should also be interesting enough to hold the attention of your reader and provide them with a satisfying experience. And of course, the scenes must be well-paced. If a scene is too long, it will feel ponderous or boring; if the scene is too short, it won’t be as effective in conveying your ideas.