Best description of the writing process I've ever heard

This is so me. From Kate Elliot quoting Tad Williams during an interview with Tor:

The term I like best I stole from Tad Williams. It’s particularly appropriate to my situation because I now happen to live there:

The Hawaiian Islands Method.

In this method, the writer knows certain main events or points that will occur in the story. These are the islands that show above the water. But of course the seamounts themselves extend beneath the waves down to the sea floor far below. So you have to write “under water” — through topography you can’t see from above — to link up the parts you can see. That’s the best description of my process I know.

From now on, if anyone asks "panster or plotter" I'm just going to say neither. I'm an island chainer! Always have been, always will be.