Not to be out-done by the literary Skipper, the lovely Snowy (in her dashing winter jacket) thinks you should also be entering a new competition promoted by Simon Trewin who has been a literary agent for the last thirty years and launched the careers of many internationally published novelists.
“I am looking for the author who makes me forget I am reading a book. The author who innovates, not imitates. The author who takes me to strange lands.”
What Simon requires are the first 5,000 pages of a Literary novel, plus a one-page 300-word plot synopsis. The first prize is £1,500; second prize is £300; third prize is £100. Entry is £20. Deadline: 31 March. Details: theplazaprizes.com/competition/literary-first-chapters/
Snowy insists you must be dogged about those writing ambitions of yours.
ninevoices 
There’s no resisting Skipper and Snowy! Now for those 5,000 words… it will always remain a mystery though that when life is really busy I long to be writing whereas whenever I do have some spare time, it’s the last thing I feel like doing – even clearing out the under sink cupboard is preferable…
I think it’s a universal problem. Maybe even Jane Austen suffered from it…who can know?