Do you love your characters? Do you find your plots exciting? Perhaps more importantly, do you love the art of creating something? If you can answer yes to all three, you have a real passion for writing. If you can’t then you don’t.

But it isn’t the end of the road for you. The creative process is a long and winding path and passion is the fuel that gets you to the finished product. The craft of writing can be learned; you can read books and take courses on plot structure, character formation, and so on but turning that craft into art is a different matter.

Art takes time and as that time passes you will come to understand that the creative process is more than getting from A to B and stopping; it is continually evolving, just as you do as a writer. How you approach writing and how you ignite the passion to push yourself are two very important parts of the process.

A successful writer will observe the authors that they admire. They will learn new techniques and they will use them to refine their own work. They polish positive work, admit it when things are not right and they are constantly improving. To do that you must be able to move your creativity from your subconscious mind to the conscious.

Never take your skill for granted; always consider where it came from and how to improve it all the time. The more you can understand it, the better you can use your skills and craft.

There are six questions to ask yourself – and answer honestly – that will help you hone your creativity:

One – Does the process drive you or are you driven by the result?

This single question can cause quite a bit of strife, depending on the sort of person you are. Some people are process people; when they do something they enjoy doing it. Others gain their motivation from the result, from the satisfaction of completing their task. If you struggle with completion, you are more than likely a process person.

In terms of the subconscious, you might feel that the prospect of finishing your work brings about negative feelings because, at that point, the work is done. There is one thing you can console yourself with – you can start a new book straight away – before you think about marketing and querying for the book you finished. When you immerse yourself in a new project, tackling those jobs will seem a lot easier.

If you are driven by results, don’t immerse yourself in writing books that are long, involved and painstaking otherwise you will feel there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Either write shorter novels or break a long one into chunks; that way, you will always have the end goal in sight, with smaller ones along the way.

What this question is really asking you is this – are you writing or finishing a book? Understanding what your motivation is can go a long way towards lighting the fires to fuel your way.