Edith Pawlicki asked Daryl Leonardo:

Do you plot or pants your books? Did you know the ending of drown and silver boy when you started them?

Daryl Leonardo It depends. Sometimes I'll have a plan. Other times I'll just go for it and see where I end up. Oftentimes, I'll start with a particular scene - sometimes a few scenes - and then try to figure out a way to get there.

With drown, it was easy because I had written a version of the story before - originally as a screenplay and then as a musical - so I used those versions as my outline, adding and changing things as needed.

silver boy was more difficult, because I went into it with a completely blank slate. I had a couple scenes in mind - most occurring towards the end - made general outline, and just went for it. About a 100 pages in, the story got away from me. I ended up going back to the drawing board, building out a more detailed outline with every single event and side story mapped out before starting work on what would become the final draft.

As far as endings go, I usually have at least an idea of how I want it to end pretty early on, or even before I start. It's the beginning and the middle bits that give me the most trouble.

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