Your bi-monthly dose of hyper personal Substacking is here, courtesy of two girlies who sell ideas for a living. Sounds romantic? Well, let’s just say it’s as kiss-kiss as Diehard :’) What it really means, is that every time we watch a film (or a TikTok), read a book (or the group chat), go on a date (or get dumped), a tiny flash in our brain goes off: “is this…a possible story? Vogue? No, more Dazed. Or R29? Maybe all!!”
Unfort for our bank accounts, many of these ideas get lost in the abyss of editors’ overwhelmed inboxes. Some times when we’re really lucky, someone will reply with a “Thanks but will pass”. And tbh, on most days, that response alone is enough to get us clanking the keys on the next pitch.
Call us delulu or determined, we *really* believe we’re just one “love this” away from writing for those dream mags (again!).
Tango with Avani
Rejection is redirection. That's what I try to tell myself after a pitch gets rejected from an editor due to XYZ reasons. In 2023, I had a lot of these moments, as do most freelancers but that doesn't stop you from relentlessly churning out story idea after story idea in the hopes that one of them strikes gold.
At a talk I recently attended, one of the speakers dished out some advice on pitching - 'Pitch what you want to read and what's catching your attention right now.' Well, I want to read about Marie Antoinette's evergreen relevance as a pop-culture icon and how she is the unofficial poster girl for the cottage-core aesthetic. Or how Instagram is the new Linkedin for creatives and that we're essentially just building our CV on there. A writer will share their latest byline (oh wait, is that me?), a photographer posts the latest campaign they shot, an artist gives us a sneak peek of their latest commission and a graphic designer might land their next client in the DM's.
We're all perfectly packaging our professional endeavours as photo dumps on the 'gram, right next to that OOTD picture or a cute selfie from the day before. It's absurd yet perfectly normal; sharing work on social media as freelance creatives gives you greater exposure and you might just land your next commission thanks to that. But the fact that the very thing that pays your bills $$$ needs to be displayed as another star in your digital CV is exhausting. Traditional job workers who hustle 9-5 don't need to indulge in that sort of self-promotion online, but for creatives it's a totally different ball-game. In that sense, this newsletter is kind of my solace because the writing I do here is just for me and I refuse to make it an overt badge of honour that speaks to my skills.
Tango with Darshita
It’s one of those rare but blissful moments when all’s already been said. If needed, read Avani’s take again - it’s helpful, really! So this edition, I’m going to leave you with some ideas that I desperately hoped would get commissioned by a swanky publication.
Maybe one that would pay me enough £££ to buy endless Good Squishes and these super adorbs “hand” bags from Hannah Glenn. But that obvs didn’t happen, they stayed in my ugly reject pile and now - for your eyes only - here are a handful of my what-if pitches from 2023:
Why does fashion week feel so terrible right now? (ft. the many twitter rants from insiders)
Meet Emma Eastwood, the blonde, bimbo Barbie in waiting (Margot Robbie’s v hot body double)
The year in unhinged celebrity apologies (TLDR: Ashton Kutcher & Mila Kunis, Drew Barrymore, Lizzo, Maureen Kelly, Jimmy Fallon)
What happens after a friendship breakup (pls someone let me write this)
The humble black ribbon was the true main character at the MET Gala (coquette before coquette was on TikTok)
It’s Miss Sohee’s world and we’re just living in it (!)
OOPS we did it again! (Random recommendations to tango with, curated 4U)
in keeping with this week’s *theme*, our recos are full of ideas that actually made it out into the wild wild world <3
I'd been seeing a lot of inflatable art in public and as branded experiences, so I wrote about it for the Observer. You don't need to be a connoisseur of art to engage with inflatables and that's why it's right up my alley.
This TikTok poet lifts work from Frida Kahlo and Rupi Kaur (lol) but still has too many followers and 7 books on Amazon. I wrote about it here.
A simple cold made me homesick and reminded me of the times my mum did a nazar ritual with salt whenever I felt sick. I thought long and hard about why these superstitions, among many others, still exist in South Asian culture and why they are comforting at times to engage with. All these musings ended up appearing in Vogue India!
Please invite me to your birthday party and theme it: my sugar daddy’s funeral. For inspo and deets, read this absolute dream commission.
A group of women decked in pink saris rallying for causes that the government or officials turned a blind eye to? They exist. I spoke to Gulabi Gang's matriarch for gal-dem (rip) and it's the first interview I conducted in Hindi and translated the whole thing to English which surprisingly was a lot harder than I expected. There are certain things that just sound better in my language and it took a while to find its English equivalent. I have a newfound respect for translators.
Therapy speak actually really sucks and it’s trickled into our conversation with friends too! “Thank you for your time and effort today” Read how to break out of that here!