What Writing this Spring Challenge Has Taught Me

It’s Day 31 of my Spring Challenge!

As a reminder, this challenge means that either you get an email in your inbox 5 times per week until May 31st (which means I get a set of luxurious, vintage jammies) OR I have to donate $5 to a charity I hate for every week that I miss the goal.

What This Spring Challenge Has Given Me

It’s the second-to-last issue of this Spring Challenge! 44 days, 32 issues (33 tomorrow), 5 series, and about 25,000 words - the length of a novella.

Thank you all so much for coming on this journey with me and for helping me give my love for the clothes we wear an outlet. I hope you’ve enjoyed this challenge just as much as I have.

Here’s what 44 days, 32 issues, 5 series, and 25,000 words have allowed me to do:

1. Write and hit send.

This is what all writers and authors say: Just do the work! Write! Setting this challenge meant I wasn’t worrying about every single word or narrative out there.

Come rain, come shine, I was forced to just write and practice putting my voice out there. Edits be damned!

2. Experiment with different writing styles

These 32 issues were written across various states of being: caffeinated, exhausted, relaxed, on a time crunch, punny, etc.

This meant that I could change up my tone of voice for each issue and experiment with what worked for me - whether it was being serious and academic, being funny, or being terse.

3. Organize my thoughts

Breaking this challenge down into several series made sure I could cast my eye across several facets of the fashion world, from its history to books to the small brands currently popping up.

It also meant that I was forced to organize the learnings and hunches I’d gathered over the years into something understandable that could be communicated and backed up with sources.

This meant that my thoughts could no longer be fragments gathered from one source or another. I had to put together a coherent thesis and delve deep into each topic while keeping in mind the quality and breadth of my sources.

There were certain topics where that was a struggle. For example, the sex work series was the only one that I started on a whim. Because I hadn’t done any research before starting the series, and because it’s not my forte, I did spend a not-insignificant amount of time reading papers, articles, and browsing artwork, before each issue. Lesson learned!

4. Figure out what I like to write about

5 different series also allowed me to figure what I actually enjoyed writing about, whether it was data or history or brands, or something else entirely.

For example, I figured out that while I did enjoy writing about the history of various pieces of fashion (jeans! Regency wear! Muslin!), reading it over - I wasn’t super into it.

It seemed like a regurgitation of things other people had already written and thought about. I did enjoy my next series on the Met Gala: I could keep an eye on history while giving it a spin and an opinion that was entirely my own.

5. Give me an outlet

If you know me IRL, you know how much I have bubbling in my brain 90% of the time. My friends have heard breakdowns on Hindu mythology, English history, the roles of novels in defining womanhood across the 19th and 20th centuries, and more.

Writing Cross Couture has helped me ask questions that are constantly on my mind (do sex workers in India wear white? Why did fashions change in 1790? What is the role of POC in mainstream fashion?). It also has the fun bonus of me holding all of you hostage as I answered these questions!

6. Take care of myself

One day, I found myself reading Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple series and being envious of her characters.

“Simran”, you’re going to say, “that’s really weird. Why would you envy a bunch of 50+ year-olds in the English countryside where there seems to be at least one murder a week?”

Hear me out.

Across classics, you come across a theme of hobbies - hobbies done purely because people enjoyed them, whether it was gardening, knitting, the piano, or something else entirely. People didn’t do them because it brought them money or status. In fact, it frequently reduced both, but they carried on doing them.

And I was envious!

In the culture we live in today, we’re constantly on the hustle. We’re productizing every moment of our lives.

We exercise because it helps us live longer. We cook at home because it saves money. There’s so little left of organic enjoyment - we’re constantly optimizing our lives.

Despite more abundance than previous generations possessed, it feels like everything we have is up for sale. And while that’s an opportunity, it’s also a curse. You’re rarely relaxed. Everything is a means to an end.

I have a whole theory and article written up on this shift, but this is neither the time nor the place. Back to the point: this newsletter has helped me take care of myself.

This challenge has allowed me to give importance to myself outside of productivity culture.

Forcing myself to carve out time to do something I’m passionate and enthusiastic about meant giving myself time to play, to breathe, to be a whole person. I didn’t have to worry about marketing each article or making money or growing the newsletter - I could just…breathe.

The Next Issue

The next issue will be about the future of Cross Couture and where it’s going! If you have any ideas or you’d like to see something in particular, hit me up - I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Also, tell me: what are your thoughts on Cross Couture so far? Like it? Hate it? Something else entirely?

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xoxo,

Simran