Last week I met up with a girl I know to try and help her write some songs.

She had a file on her computer of lyrics/poems she'd written. Although she was prepared to show me some of these, some of them she refused point blank to show me as they were "private" and "too personal".

Although that's entirely decision and I've no probem with her protecting her privacy, I do see it as a major barrier in the song-writing as I've always taken the view that the things you're scared to say to people are usually the things most worth saying and that, if you're holding back and are afraid to reveal aspects of your personality your uncomfortable with through your song-writing, it's very hard to write anything that's original or emotionally 'true'.

Obviously I'm over-simpliflying this due to space etc. but I'd be quite interested in people's views on this?