In performing selective denervation for treatment of cervical dystonia, the four muscles encountered in the standard midline approach to the posterior spine can be conceptualized as individual chapters of a book, with each chapter being turned one by one until the correct plane is established. One must flip through the trapezius muscle, followed by the splenius capitis, and finally the semispinalis capitis, allowing for the development of a dissection plane between the semispinalis capitis and semispinalis cervicis in order to identify the nerves for selective denervation. Illustrated by Stephen P. Graepel. © Mayo Clinic. See the article by Bauman et al. (V3).