Writing is like cooking–not the kind we do at home but the kind we see on TV where the chef has all of the ingredients set out in tiny glass containers. The chef uses each ingredient at the proper time in the recipe. (Did you ever wonder who washes all those glass containers. It’s probably not the chef.)

In writing, you do the same thing: You set before you all of your “ingredients”–chunks of the story–and then insert them in the right places as you go along. It’s like the chemistry of cooking … but with words.