Figured it would be helpful as a lot of users here probably have a lot of questions and more experienced writers can answer

Let's help each other out

A Tip from gearslutz

As some who has written more songs than I can count and had professional success. (At one point, it was my only job, and even today, my PRO checks are my bread and butter. Of all the things I've done "Songwriting" (and composing) are the reason, I'm not outside your place asking for a quarter every time you go out.) I can offer you a couple of things:

1. The best songs you write will be GIVEN to you. At points in your life, you will have a complete song inside you that comes into being faster than you can write it down or demo it. When it happens you look at what has come into being and say "Holy sh!t" where did that come from!!?! Next, you will say "This song is AWESOME!"

You are correct, it is awesome, be grateful and humbled that you were the one to receive it. If you are, you are more likely to get more.

2. Don't make the mistake of chasing this experience. You can't, it comes and goes as it pleases. If you say "This or nothing" And cop a "Good is the enemy of great" type of attitude towards it...Well, you most likely won't get far. I suggest that "NOTHING is the enemy of ANYTHING." is a far more lucrative motto for songwriters to live by.

3. Any and all of what you suggested should be tried. Do it all. If you get into a groove with one process, eventually you'll get bored and want to try another, do it all, then think of some new approaches and do them too. You never know when "IT" is going to pay you a visit...or where.

The keys to songwriting are SHOWING UP, SHUTTING UP, FINISHING UP, and DRESSING UP that pig in the prettiest dress you can find.

SHOW UP: You need to DO IT and do it REGULARLY. And yes, that means lots of crap songs, doesn't matter, somedays they WON'T be crap, but if you didn't show up, you would have missed the connection. Fear of suck is the single greatest obstacle a songwriter's faces, or taking that a step further, your ego is your enemy. If you can batter that thing into submission you will write better songs more often because you won't be getting in the way of the song, as you gain experience, you'll see what I mean.

SHUTTING UP: Well, I should have saved the ego part for this heading because that's what it is about. The less you can think of the song as an appendage of yourself and more as a living breathing thing that you are helping to come into being, the more fluid and productive you will be. Do NOT ask your own opinion until AFTER the song is written.

FINISHING UP: Don't be a lazy sack of sh!t. Write that Goddamn bridge, write a third verse, have MORE than you need NOT LESS...and do it NOW! No, you CAN'T figure out all that other stuff later (lyrics) sit down shut up and finish the first draft NOW. If that's the best you can do now, fine, as long as it's a SONG. A chord progression and some mumbling are not a song (Unless that IS the song, but I doubt it, so quit looking for outs) Are you a songwriter? Then nut up, fancy pants! Give em' a tug and FINISH THAT SONG IN ONE SESSION. When you come back to it, you can edit something that actually EXISTS! Do not get in the habit of having musical scrap heaps filled with disembodied song "parts"

DRESSING UP: Once you have something. (And you'll know when you do, you'll still like the song in a week.) RECORD IT...PROPERLY...BROADCAST QUALITY...DO IT...YES, YOU! Because then and ONLY THEN do you have something you can actually make MONEY WITH. Music supervisors who are thrilled when you tell them you have just the song they are looking for, will kick you out of their office and permanently ban you if at the meeting you pull out your phone, start mumbling over some loops and say "See!? I know it's kinda rough, but...perfect right??!!!"

In closing, I will add this, I believe humility to be the steroid of songwriting, and songwriters to be it's greatest foe. Now GO FORTH, let your quest begin, return to me with the interpretation of this saying, and I will watch as you pull the sword from the stone and know the prophecy has been fulfilled.., Then you can bang my Sister, while I play KISS's "Music from the Elder" on 8-track.