5)
related to 1) but should be made clearer: start small. A 2000 line project, or even a 10,000 line one, is much more doable than a 40k line monster. I guess if you legitimately can't find a short VN you're interested in that's a problem, but if your translator is reading VNs in Japanese - as they should be able to - then might have some decent recommendations.
If you can use your illustration skills to edit UI/text images, that'd be a useful outlet for your skills. Many projects need image editing.