Hello fellow human,

once again as I come to write this newsletter I realize the list of links I want to share with you feels already outdated. Not because the content is outdated but because I've changed, I've changed and these links feel away from me. 

And it's hard because, on one hand, I want to share all those documentaries, podcasts, articles that are also part of my growth, and on the other hand, I want to share less to make it more precious. I want to reduce the number of bullet points but defend each paragraph so you will know -hopefully- that I filtered to share with you what truly mattered to me. 

Sometimes I feel that quantity lets me hide and avoid criticism. If I affirm one thing, it will be easier to judge me than if I share 10 things where more people will find something in it for them. I guess that's the difference between Couture and Fast Fashion. Going horizontal or going vertical. 

So, today is a vertical day. I will sum up the last two weeks of my creative growth through 2 recommendations:

• Make a Residency: Yes. MAKE. Not do. Not attend. MAKE it. 2019 has been a year of many things and one of them was finally understanding that the best way to complete projects is to claim to the Universe that you are going to take time to create. And then do it. Residencies have been multiplying themselves this year and out of all the residencies I've done I've produced: a 30 pages screenplay for a medium-short (production fell through), the Bible and season outline for a sci-fi show (we didn't win), a halfway done feature screenplay (pending), a completed and released audio fiction. This week I just wrapped another writing residency that should have been about the feature film and for the second time ended up being about other projects. Projects that felt more urgent, more inspiring, closer to our brain, fingertips, and hearts. And now we have two new projects in the pipelines. As you can see, many projects were done, only one saw the light of day and is behind me. That's how much work, attempts, time and money (spent and not gained) it takes. And I would do it all over again. 
  
  Make your residency. I stopped waiting, I scheduled and showed up. And the other thing I learned, spending all those days throughout the year working on finding what I want to say and how I want to say it, is that you can't control, you CAN'T CONTROL the outcome because the chances are that between the moment you booked your dates on your agenda and the moment the D day arrives, your feelings and emotions will have changed. You will have changed. And we create with emotions. You can force yourself (if you don't have a choice and must work on X project), or you can surf yourself. "Residency" is a fancy word. It sounds dreamy. It makes you feel like you're validated. It also asks for results. I believe it's important to have goals, deadlines, to produce. But I now know that I need to accept the production might be something else entirely, and that's fine. So, the bottom line for point #1 is this: what is preventing you from booking 2 to 3 days in 2020 and MAKE your residency? It might not be as glamorous as it sounds but it will make you GROW.
  
  
• Spend time with Kate Tempest: I came back from my writing residency yesterday and went directly to see Kate Tempest, an "English spoken word performer poet". It's interesting because I live in France and this British performer poet comes on stage and recites intricate, deep and soul-filled texts onstage, solely accompanied by one musician. I knew mostly nothing of her work and I was astonished to realize that her diction is so sharp, I could understand everything she was saying if I chose to. Sometimes I let myself float with her sounds and sometimes I listened, and when I did it her texts entered vertically, deeply in me. The title of this newsletter is from Hold Your Own.
  
  But the song I really want to share with you is People's Faces, which is the last song of her latest album + the last song she played last night. The text is incredible, you can listen to her performance while reading the lyrics here. 
  The whole text felt incredibly important. I love every word but here is a paragraph to give you a little taste :

"It said there are no new beginnings
Until everybody sees that the old ways need to end
But it’s hard to accept that we’re all one and the same flesh
Given the rampant divisions between oppressor and oppressed
But we are, though
More empathy, less greed, more respect
All I’ve got to say has already been said
I mean, you heard it from yourself
When you were lying in your bed and couldn’t sleep
Thinking, "Couldn’t we be doing this differently?"
I’m listening to every little whisper in the distance singing hymns
And I can, I can feel things changing."

Kate Tempest is having a nice trajectory in France. Even though most of us don't get what she says, we feel what she says. And what makes her stand out is that she incarnates her own voice. She holds her own. There is a connection between point 1 and point 2, and between point 1 and point 2b (= this specific song I'm sharing here.) Things are changing. The world is brewing. We all feel it. And to do our part, to bring down what destroy us and to help rebuild another world on a saved planet, we need to hold our own. We need to invest time in finding out what we have to say, as individuals, and how we want to say it.

A 3 days residency once won't do it. But it's a step. And you need this step to take the next one. And once you've realized you're in charge of taking the steps, nothing can prevent you from being in motion and create change.

That's it for today.

Question everything.
Create every day.
Find out what you want to say.
Share with others.
Repeat.

With love,

Nathalie

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