Douglas Boulter
I have written 24 novels (25th in editing/proofing stage) using the "pantsing" process and have never gotten lost in a tangent. One way to keep on track, I call the Lighthouse or Beacon method.
About this speaker
Douglas (Doug) Boulter has written 24 novels, mostly in the Science Fiction and Fantasy realm, as a pantser – or discovery writer as he prefers – someone who operates as both reader and writer, author and audience simultaneously, telling himself the story as it unfolds.
Pantsers do not (figuratively) write "by the seat of their pants". Just like a reader, the discovery writer has gone to the “bookstore”, walked over to the “genre section” that he prefers, chosen a “book” based on its “title”, its “cover”, and the “blurb” written on the back, before embarking on the journey, discovering the true story as he writes.
As the reader, he continually anticipates the story’s direction, leaping forward to examine possible consequences of each new bit of information gleaned; as the writer, he evaluates these possibilities and follows the one most consistent with the “blurb”, but remains ready to edit that "blurb" if the emerging story warrants it.
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I've been writing for 50+ years, first poetry then sliding into prose. I've been an avid reader for nearly 60 years, reading in many fiction genres and in non-fiction (mostly history).
I write under the name D.A. Boulter, and my books can be found at https://www.amazon.com/stores/D.A.-Boulter/author/B003WP9W5O
