I don't know what to do with my creative skills

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I love to draw and write, and although right now they're just hobbies, I've often fantasized about somehow applying my creative skills into a profession (e.g. computer game design, concept art for a movie or game, screenwriting, novel-writing, or comics). The problem is that I'll be studying biological anthropology in the next few years, and I actually have a PhD. as my ultimate ambition, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to get into any industry that involves art or writing, and I don't think that you can get into any creative profession if you're only going to do it as a hobby instead of a full-blown career. So what am I going to do with my creativity?

Did you have a career goal in mind in obtaining a PhD in Biological Anthropology?

A lot of good artists are textbook illustrators. Especially anatomy texts. Perhaps with your PhD plus your creativity you could write and illustrate books on the subject, and become a professor, and require your own books as mandatory course material so you could get rich.

Yes, I actually was thinking about being a professor.

Now that you mention it, illustrating textbooks (especially historical, anthropological, and maybe paleontological) could be a possibility. Maybe I could also use my drawings in presentations. The problem is that I also want a large fanbase, but I don't think being one out of thousands of college professors in the country is the way to gain recognition...

Are you kidding me? If you wrote a popular bio-anthropology book such as "The Naked Ape" you'd be as famous as you could stand to be. Having a PhD would only give your book even more credibility.

Most novelists don't start to make a full time living at it until they've been published a half dozen times or more (and some write for a long time before they get published at all). Not everybody is as lucky as Stephen King to have Stanley Kubrick make a Jack Nicholson film of one of your stories when you're just starting out. Also, if you aren't one of those prolific types who sh*t books on a daily basis (speaking of King), it can take some writers several years to finish a novel, and they have to have a day job in the meantime.

What you do with your creativity is - keep at it. Do your creative work when the muse strikes, and just keep doing it until you've got something you're ready to share with the world. Then it will be up to the marketplace to determine if you're right, and if the world is ready for what you're offering. Doing it as a hobby is how you hone your skills. You don't just pick a creative profession, walk in one day and say "Here I am and here's my work. When do I start getting paid?" You have to prove yourself first, by dedication to the craft until you master it, its calling 'paying your dues' and it takes time. But having another career doesn't mean you should stop doing what you love.

You can do whatever you want.

Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were both teaching and writing. Beatrice Potter did science illustrations before publishing Peter Rabbit.

I don't think you'll have trouble with a fan base because your subject matter is interesting. Then again I'm mixed so that just might be how I am.

Depends on how popular dinosaurs and people from ancient African civilizations are. I personally find those subjects fascinating, which is why I draw and write about them so much, but since it's hard to find fiction about either, I am not sure there's a huge market for either.