Invertible compositions of one-dimensional maps are studied which are assumed to include maps with non-positive Schwarzian derivative and others whose sum of distortions is bounded. If the assumptions of the Koebe principle hold, we show that the joint distortion of the composition is bounded. On the other hand, if all maps with possibly non-negative Schwarzian derivative are almost linear-fractional and their nonlinearities tend to cancel leaving only a small total, then they can all be replaced with affine maps with the same domains and images and the resulting composition is a very good approximation of the original one. These technical tools are then applied to prove a theorem about critical circle maps. (AMS subject code 26A18)