Domino is a mercenary-for-hire. She is a skilled fighter and has demonstrated the ability to use her psionic powers to alter probabilities. She subconsciously generates a psionic aura that makes improbable events occur within her line of sight; this may vary from causing an enemy’s equipment to malfunction to hitting the right button to shut down an overloading machine. Domino also possesses the ability to share this psionic aura with others.
Domino has been a member of both X-Force and the Six Pack, a black-ops task force run by former X-Man Colossus. Following an insane Scarlet Witch’s depowering of the majority of mutants during M-Day, Domino helped reform X-Force with Shatterstar and Caliban. Later, Domino worked with Storm’s team to liberate mutants sequestered on Rumekistan and on Cable’s island paradise Providence. Domino has also shared a romantic relationship with the time-traveling mutant Cable, with whom she shares a psionic link.
When we as children work hard to place each domino just so, and then we accidentally bump one before it is finished, the whole chain goes crashing down – all of our hard work gone. In many ways, the same is true of writing a novel. We spend a great deal of time carefully placing each scene and event, just so that the next scene will make sense to the reader. It is important that each scene logically connects to the preceding scenes, and that the emotional beats shift appropriately with each character’s changing mood. This is called the Domino Effect.
Hevesh demonstrates how powerful the Domino Effect is in this video, which shows her knocking down a series of massive dominoes that are one-and-a-half times their size. Each domino starts out small, only 5 millimeters tall and 1 millimeter thick (it’s actually smaller than a Tic Tac). The final domino was more than three feet tall and weighed 100 pounds!
As the first domino falls, it converts potential energy into kinetic energy and then transmits some of that energy to the next domino. This energy is then transmitted to the next domino and so on, in a continual chain reaction. This is the Domino Effect, a power that can be harnessed to create mind-blowing installations.
In the same way, we as writers can harness the power of the Domino Effect to help our novels erupt into action and thrill the reader. However, the key is to start with a clear understanding of the power and potential of this phenomenon. So, let’s look at some of the key aspects of this power and how it can be used to create a dynamite book.