Butler grew up strikingly tall and shy, allowing her mind’s imaginative stories keep her company more than the company of classmates or friends. Her teachers, unaware of her dyslexia, saw her slow reading and trouble with finishing homework quickly as an unwillingness to do work or laziness. It wasn’t until she was 13 years old that a teacher recognized Butler’s talent and imagination and encouraged her to submit a story into a science fiction magazine, which became the first of many published works of Butler.
Butler, despite her dyslexia, was a bookworm. She learned how to absorb information in a way that worked for her—which was listening. She read slowly, but “listened”to each word that she read in her head so that she could really understand them. She started using books on tape and, in college, course textbooks on tape so she could listen along. By the time she was making a career out of writing, she developed a strict writing regimen. She was known for waking up early and making herself write for a few hours every morning, a discipline that, undoubtedly, influenced her great success as a science fiction writer.
Learn more about Octavia Butler and her novels here.
