I love Ray Bradbury. And I’ve long admired his work ethic. And I think it’s less daunting than it is inspiring.

Here is a writer who began in earnest at age 9 or 10 … and by his teens had acquired the discipline of putting at least 1,000 words to paper every day of his life. (And usually more than that.)

But what I find inspiring is WHY he put in that work across all those years.

He did it so he could master is craft.

That’s it.

And he wanted to master his craft because he loved what the act of creating meant — and not what it meant to his bank account, but what it meant for his inner life.

Sure, he was a working writer and he had to pay the bills. But you never get the impression in any of Ray Bradbury’s work that he was just phoning it in to collect a paycheck. No. Ray Bradbury created for the LOVE OF IT.

And because he loved it so much, he wanted to be sure he was damn good. So damned good that he would be able to capture whatever idea or vision his Muse might bring to him.

There’s only one way to get that good: PRACTICE.

As photo artists, I think we tend to think we can get away with just throwing stuff into Photoshop and have it turn out great. But that’s not really how it works. Granted, learning to take photos and turn them into art doesn’t take as much time or dedicated effort as learning to play the violin (or even learning to paint with watercolors, for that matter), but to pull off something real good, something excellent — that does take practice. You’ve gotta put in the time.

The good news is, if you’re reading this, you no doubt love to create. You love what it is you do. So it shouldn’t feel like work at all.

Just be sure that you go into it prepared to work. Because to get REAL good might take pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone. Repeatedly.

But that’s okay. That’s part of it.

Just treat it as practice.

Put in the practice, put in the work. Do that long enough and you’ll get where you want to go.

And trust me. It’s worth it.

– Sebastian