A domino is a small rectangular block, usually made of wood or plastic, the face of which is divided into parts, each bearing from one to six pips (or dots) resembling those on dice. The most common set contains 28 such blocks. Dominoes (or dominoes) are used to play a variety of games. They can be laid down in lines and angular patterns, and the player’s goal is to knock them over by pushing a domino on their end or adjacent to them. A person who constructs a remarkable domino setup is referred to as a domino artist.

Hevesh started playing with dominoes when she was 9 years old, when her grandparents gave her a classic 28-piece set. She fell in love with the game and began creating her own sets. Now, at 20, she is a domino artist whose videos on YouTube have more than 2 million subscribers. She’s also created stunning domino installations for movie sets, television shows, and even a concert tour by pop singer Katy Perry.

When Hevesh first starts working on a new setup, she considers the theme or purpose of the installation. Then she brainstorms images or words that might be a good fit. Eventually, the ideas come together into a rough sketch. She then uses the same process to create the final design. She first lays down the foundation, then adds on details such as lights and colors. Finally, she rechecks her work for any mistakes.

One of the most important lessons I try to pass on to my writing students is to think like a domino. A domino is a building block that can help you build something bigger, more elaborate, and even more impressive than you could have imagined. And once you start adding on, it’s amazing how much you can do.

In the same way, each scene in a novel can act as a domino, affecting and even changing the scenes that follow it. But you have to be careful not to build a structure that is too unstable. For example, if you have an intriguing idea for a scene, make sure the next scenes that come before it provide enough logical impact to support it.

If you’re a pantser, that is, if you don’t make detailed outlines of your story before you write it, you can still use the domino image as a tool to keep your writing on track. If you are writing a mystery, for instance, and the next scene doesn’t raise the tension or offer clues to the solution of the case, something is wrong. In that case, you need to do some reworking.