A summary of where I am now.

There's a favorite mentality among historians and the elderly that you can't know where you are going unless you know where you've been. Yes, this is true, however it also ignores the rather obvious point that you also need to know where you at at this present moment. Knowing at one stage as my bright eyed younger self that I was planning to be a games designer does not help me now as it would require another few years of schooling for me to require the inevitable skill set in order to try and follow that career path.

Ignoring the past careers that I have dreamed up and then discarded as so many take away plastic containers I am left with a clear view of the future. I know where I want to be in 10 years, well traveled living comfortably on my skills as a novelist. Unfortunately this is somewhat like picking up the last Harry Potter and reading that honey coated epilogue. Although somewhat hallow and maybe a little too much to buy (good thing I didn't mention the solid gold jet I'm planning on getting with my wads of spare money), it is meaningless if you haven't read the build up and appreciated the journey.

I am without a journey so to speak, this is not to say I haven't had adventures, many of which I shall be regaling you lucky people with. I am without a clear idea of what I am meant to be doing in the ten years leading up to my dream. I understand some steps which I am meant to be following to get my writing underway, but I am unable to move straight forward with this without a different career in order to help pay the bills. There is only so long I can live off my parents before it becomes A. pathetic, B. pathetic, or C. pathetic.

With no clear idea of what I am going to do, I must look to my skills and interests to discover what it is I should try and be doing in the intermediate time between now and when I can support myself with my novels.

The first, which must be dealt with is writing, certain careers such as journalism could make use of my writing but I have had difficulty in finding a magazine I would like to write for. At least through the want adds, most seem to be wanting specialised writer's about business or media. The things that I would consider myself informed enough about in order to inform others is ancient history; which has its own difficulties as I would need far more time to devote to papers because of the amount of research needed. Movies or comics would be the next possibility, and they are ideas that I am going to try to get into.

Ancient history, which I am almost finished with in terms of my degree, the first obvious choices are academia or historical writings, the second of which I've dealt with. As for academia its not an extremely viable idea for me at the moment. My marks while solid, were not strong enough to put me ahead of the rest of the crowd as well as again the issue of research which was a weak area for me.

On the move from skills to interests we can look to drawing, should I decide to follow illustrating as a career I really would need to devote a large amount of time to improving. I do believe that with effort I can bring my skill set up to a profitable level. However the entire problem is in that statement. I would again need time. Something which I am feeling progressively short on. I am also not sure as to how to launch a skill set in illustrating. As previously stated I have steps to follow on the path to being an author, but as for illustrating, I have no idea.

Steampunk. Oh how would one make money from a little known fad. Granted from things such as the video clip of the Ballad on Mona Lisa by Panic at the Disco the popularity in the main stream is growing and should I have a business plan this would be the time to strike. But what is steam punk I hear my readers (yeah I'm going to continue to pretend I have readers) cry. The beautiful love child of steam engine power and British punk, Steampunk can best be described as alternate history. That is taking an act in the past, changing the out come to thus change the present. Authors such as Harry Turtledove work quiet a lot with alternate history. Steampunk is taking modern technology and basing it off steam engines of the Victorian age. It is easier to describe with visuals, so I'd recommend a simple google search on the term. You will find such amazing this as a steam punk Dalek or computer as well as many corsets. I do have some skill with design and construction and have experimented with Steampunk guns in the past. I could sell these designs but the problem of starting money in order to get parts for the constructions.

I believe I am going to have to put this into two parts, my mind is easily distracted and I'm going to go and draw steampunk guns.