Write Everyday: Two Days in the Life of Writer Octavia Butler

Photo Credit: WBEZ, “Octavia Butler: Writing Herself Into the Story”

“I just knew there were stories I wanted to tell.”
―Octavia Butler

Often referred to as the “Grand Dame of Science Fiction,” Octavia Butler grew up in Pasadena, California. She started writing science fiction when she was twelve after seeing the movie Devil Girl from Mars and realizing that “Geez, I can write a better story than that,” and “Somebody got paid for writing that awful story” (Currey). She worked many grueling jobs early in her life including one as a potato chip inspector. Some of her novels include Patternmaster, Kindred, Dawn, and Parable of the Sower. Amongst her many awards, Butler received the 1984 Hugo Award for Best Short Story, the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant in 1995 (the first and only science fiction writer to ever do so), and PEN American Center Lifetime Achievement Award in Writing. Dorothy Allison wrote in the Village Voice, that Octavia Butler writes “the most detailed social criticism […] creating some of the most fascinating female characters in the genre… real woman caught in impossible situations.”

In Mason Currey’s Daily Rituals: Women at Work, Currey describes how Octavia Butler had two routines, the one earlier in her life when she had to do other jobs to survive (telemarketing, dishwashing, potato inspecting) and the one later in her life when she had more flexibility in…