There's a moment in The Doors: Ray Manzarek, the keyboard player, asks the band for five minutes alone (five minutes!) to put together an opening for their new song, "Light My Fire." Morrison et al head outside. A moment later, Manzarek calls them back and plays

Lately, most of my active project work has involved mapping content to parts, chapters, and sections of books. In other words, figuring out what a particular book should contain and in what order.

People get stuck here. It's overwhelming. You need a solid process or you're

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree," Lincoln said, "and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." Good advice for 19th-century lumberjack Presidents. Bad advice for writers.

Chop first. Chop a whole cord of wood. Then reach for the whetstone. Even better,