Welcome to Writers SA’s member-only literary advice column, where our experts respond to your questions about writing, publishing, the literary life and beyond. Got a question? Ask us here. For this installment of Agony Author, Georgie asks:“Hi! I have been playing with an idea for a novel for a couple years now, but get very overwhelmed when I try to plan it. I’ve written 40,000 but can’t work out how to make it better. How can I make this task more achievable?” Dear Georgie, Congratulations on getting this far on your draft! I say draft because there’s so much you can do in each pass to increase your word count and make your writing sparkle, but also make sure your story is strong and can go the distance! By breaking it down into stages, you (hopefully) get less overwhelmed. There’s a couple of ways to think about a project in