Mateo Askaripour’s Writing Routine

"I called myself a writer when I began pursuing writing seriously. Some people who have published books don’t feel comfortable calling themselves writers—imposter’s syndrome is real."

When Mateo Askaripour first started writing in 2016, he was working as the director of sales development at a tech start-up. Inspired by the industry’s fast-moving energy and “fail fast” mentality, Askaripour took that energy and applied it to his passion.

“With this ‘fail fast’ mentality, paired with no formal writing training to speak of, I began to write, and I wrote fast,” he wrote in Lit Hub. Over the next three years, the Brooklyn author pumped out three manuscripts, writing over 300,000 words while living at his parent’s house in his childhood bedroom.

In an interview with The New York Times, Askaripour credits his former sales role — which had him making over 200 cold calls a day — in giving him the grit and stamina to pursue his writing dreams. “You’re calling Charles halfway across the country who doesn’t know you from Adam, and it’s your aim to get him on the phone, keep him on the phone and either get him to buy your product or set more time for a longer conversation later,”…