13/3/2018

​When Janis Joplin sang “Piece of My Heart” way back in 1968, she really did exactly that. It gave all her listeners a piece of her heart, and probably more than that. She obviously had no second thoughts about it — she had to express all she felt and wanted in that song. Did it cost her later? That is impossible to say what leads to what, the fact is she didn’t care what anybody was to think about it, she didn’t care about any risks or personal vulnerability, she just had to get it out of her.
Absolutely no difference when you dabble in committing words to something that is not just inside your head. You can try to give it all, or you can try to control it, curb as much risk as you can, show how much you know and how intelligent you are, but try not to expose any of your personal vulnerabilities.
Some writers try to put in that control by not writing about anything that deals directly with themselves personally or even anything that can remotely be connected to them. They pick up writing non-fiction, science fiction or as the French would call it ‘beaux arts’ poetry about the beauty of nature.
The only problem is it never works. Not even if you’re writing some content copy or preparing an advertising campaign. Whenever you commit a single word to anything that makes it readable or audible, like Janis, you give a piece of you, no matter how minuscule it is.
As it usually turns out, the Repeated Wordfurthermore you try to restrict it, the further clues you are bound to leave about who you are and where you come from. But then you have to ask yourself one key question — isn’t that exactly the reason why you picked up writing, any writing, after all?
The thing is, the more you express yourself without constraints in your writing, the more you don’t think how much you are going to uncover yourself to others, the better your writing is going to be. Even if it is just a copy where your customer sets the parameters. Then, at some point, you might even come up with a piece of marvelous art like Janis Joplin did.

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