One worry I have is that many of the ideas here are tricky to turn into a business. But here’s a way to make money right away, have income to write off expenses, get feedback, find possible collaborators, and collect information that could become a book: Teach an evening class at a local high school. Want to write a nonfiction book? Teach a class on the subject. Adds a credential. Students might give you useful anecdotes or life lessons to include. Preparing for the class would be like writing chapters. You’d get real world feedback for your explanations and ideas. Same thing could be done with games, puzzles, music, art, whatever. Many people just want to have fun. So form a class for testing your games. They’ll learn about inventing. You could get signed confidentiality agreements, if you’re worried. You could promise copied of published games as thank-yous for their troubles. Bet their feedback would be invaluable! Avoids the skeptical spouse problem of trying to host game-testing parties in your home: Hey, my inventing bug is making a little money!