So much nerd inspiration

Since I am unemployed right now (and looking, if any of you in the Chicago area find something that could suit me) I've been trying to think of a side project to do, and I keep coming back to one thing:

My previous campaign.

I loved my campaign, especially the characters.  Some of those characters I have been working on for years now that I think about it... almost seven years.  And I find I can't let go of them, or their world.  So what do I do?

There are two obvious answers to this.

1) write a book

It would probably be something targeted to a younger audience, girls in junior high or high school.  The characters I created were made in that vain, around the same time I really got into Tamora Pierce.  She's a fantastic writer who has a lot of strong, young female characters in her stories.  From her I was inspired to make one of the protagonists.  With that in mind, the story I will be writing will be for that age group.  And I would have fun with it too, since I have technically written some of this before.  In high school this was supposed to be a trilogy, and I wrote 2/3 of it.  I have a lot I want to change at this point, so it would be a huge rewrite, with a lot of background written before I would start the actual story.  The background idea leads to the next idea...

2) create a campaign setting for an RPG

I've ran a campaign in this world, why not use all the characters that made this world the way it is?  There is a question if to use a pre or post PC world.  Both have a lot of potential, but I think I would rather go pre with some twists.  Certain PC-NPC connections became pretty important, and a lot of my PCs are worth immortalizing.  The question is with what system?  Considering how important politics are in this game, I don't think it would work with the current D&D system.  Too much focus on combat.  I could also just write my own system but I rather just work with the characters and the setting, and use a good system created by someone else.

And then there's the idea of 

3) write both.

This could potentially suck out all my energy from finding a "real" job.  I doubt this will even be slightly profitable.  But I might just do the crazy thing and actually do both.  It's a risk, I know, and I do need a real source of income soon.  But if I could help make one person's RPG experience awesome, or give one person a fantastic story... why not?

Over the last month I realized how hard it is to get these stories away.  I can't run away from them.  I have to write them down.  Why not share the story?

Also, if I did the RPG idea, I would definitely keep you all updated here, with sneak peeks and such.  I just have to figure out everything.

Someone told me I seemed like a person that needs big projects.  And he was right.  So now, since I'm out on my own, I need my own big project.  This will be it.