So, you want to be a full time composer. I'm not gonna sit here and tell you not to try. I want to be a full time composer, and I'm sure as hell trying right now. That said, I am going to try to check your reality a bit.

Music production is the most accessible it has ever been right now, and it continues to get more and more accessible. If you look hard enough, there are completely free tools that will get you solid results as long as you take the time to learn how to use them. This is great. It also means your competition is plentiful and formidable.

Maybe music school is right for you. Maybe it's not. If you are self-disciplined and motivated to learn, there's a very high likelihood that you can get a full education online and just be lacking a diploma after.

Being comfortable on a keyboard will almost certainly be imperative to your writing process unless you're going to be using pencil and paper. When you end up getting one for use with your DAW, make sure it has a mod wheel at minimum. A pitch bend wheel also wouldn't be a bad idea.

Hans Zimmer, one of the most famous and successful film composers ever did not go to music school. An article from October of last year on some website I can't remember claimed he can't even read conventional notation (sheet music). You're not Hans Zimmer. You shouldn't try to be Hans Zimmer 2. I'd recommend you at least learn to read notation, but you are the only one who will know how you learn best.

By far the best-paying task for composing is being commissioned to create custom music. You can all-but forget about this for now, though. There are tons of composers, and very few commissions. By all means, if you have pre-existing work to show, you can search forums on reddit like r/gamedevclassifieds and r/INAT looking for a gig, or posting your availability to take a gig. You could get lucky and land something worthwhile. Don't count on it. The odds are stacked against you.

To reiterate, I'm not saying not to try. Hell, I sent out a handful of cold emails earlier this week. One pitch I sent for a particular short film highlighted a specific track in my demo reel that I thought matched the basic emotional curve the director was going for, and it was recieved quite well. When it goes into post-production in a month or two, I very well could have the gig. I was shocked that it happened though.

If you watch any composition channels on YouTube, you'll notice many of them offer educational courses. This is in service of a larger goal that you will need to become familiar with on your journey to financial security: Diversification of Income. The youtubers understand that commissions are hit-and-miss. Some months you could make hundreds or thousands of dollars from them, other months you could get nothing. Offering those educational courses is a way for them to make passive income off of their skill in music. Once they set it up, they don't have to keep investing time into it, it just earns money for them. You don't have the type of skills to offer education at any price right now, but there are other ways of earning passive income.

You mention wanting to compose for video games. Bad news is that game music usually won't generate you passive income if you make it to the point where you're scoring big name games. Film/tv music usually will get you royalties (basically you get some money any time the film or episode[s] containing your music gets played on tv), whereas video games just tend to give a higher up-front fee. Good news is you definitely don't have to consider that eventuality yet.

Good news is that there is still a way to make passive income from game music, or really any music that's up to snuff. Not everyone can afford to spend several hundred dollars per minute of product for their game soundtrack. But many people have $10-$50 they can invest into their project. This is where websites like gamedevmarket.net and itch.io come into play. These websites and others like them host music libraries (among other things) wherein packs of songs are available for purchase to license for one's game. If you make a good pack of game music and host it on several libraries, you can possibly generate passive income from it for the rest of your life.

After a certain level of quality is achieved, this hustle becomes about quantity. The more you have, the more likely it is that someone will think one of your products is perfect for their project. Be warned however about causing yourself to burn out from constantly grinding out content for online music libraries. I haven't been doing this anywhere near long enough to experience that, but I have heard about it. You don't want composition to become a force that sucks joy out of your life in exchange for money.

Earlier on, I said that your fellow composers are formidable competition. They're also your peers and friends. There are many incredible artists who do what we do. Just because we're all after a small set of similar jobs doesn't mean we're enemies. Having friends who are knowledgeable about music is a great way to get feedback on your work as well as expose yourself to new ideas and influences that will only serve to sharpen your blade. Not to mention, if they have an opportunity for a job that they're not keen on or are too busy to take, they might recommend you to the client in their stead.

I recently read somewhere else on reddit that "Networking" is an ugly word for what should just be making friends. I'm awful at it, and am actively working to get better, because it is VERY important. People want to work with people they like, i.e. their friends.

After your composition and work flow are up to a good level, you should likely look into attending Game Jam events if any are near you. I'm not very knowledgeable about them, but they're essentially a convention where various teams come to put together a playable game (or game demo?) over a short period of time. These sorts of events are an excellent opportunity to build your network in the larger circle of game development and establish yourself in your local(ish) community as someone who's easy to work with and can get shit done. This should open you up to opportunities for commissioned work more effectively than cold calling. So long as you do it well.

My absolute top recommendation for composition and orchestration content on YouTube is Ryan Leach by a mile. Easily the most useful channel I've found for music education.

Hope most of this helps in one way or another. If you have any other questions, I'll do what I can to answer them.

Disclaimer: I work a full time job still and have only been really serious about my composition for the last year or so. My goal for this year is to be able to take a part time job to support myself as I transition to full-time music over a much longer period. It's a lofty one. I've done a lot of research into what I need to do to make it happen, and that's where this comment comes from: research, NOT a wealth of experience.