The process

[FalconSilver]

Obviously it's individual for each song-writer to some extent, though there's only so many ways to peel your personal song-writing onion.

I know that ABBA's songwriters swore by running for easing the process, no doubt the kinesthetic aspect of movement helping rhythm and momentum for their ideas.  Phil Collins would go line by line and work along his song like that.

For me the most important aspect to songwriting is mood.....Essentially creativity is a form of play and you need to be in that mindset to work productively.  If you are trying to force it just stop wasting your time and do something else because you are more likely to frustrate yourself.

Some people start with lyrics and build upon that, but I've never been like that....I'll probably start humming something grab the guitar and try some chords with it.

Songs can take a while to finish sometimes and sometimes not.  If I have an idea that I want to play with - it might be a story or something personal or some mixture of the two. If I find I need some spark for it I might have a coffee on an empty stomach and daydream a bit with the song, play along with it in my mind. I find visuals help with a song, close your eyes and create the video for this song, I find that can help kick start it.  When you have maybe a verse or chorus, play around with variations of them. Imagine how some of your favourite artists might approach it, look for unusual approaches to it so you have some versions which you can then narrow down.  Once you have some ideas its to an instrument to find its key and chord sequences.

Songs for me are about making yourself feel something, expressing something that's inside yourself, just like a painter wants to capture a scene they see you want to capture and express emotions you feel and articulate them in music.   So song-writing is all about the process of taking that feeling and producing an audio version.

[Elvis Nash]

I just work 20 hours a day on writing , Some are decent some kinda suck . I even write them in my sleep

[Thekesslerboy]

For me, songs always start with the music. Messing about on the guitar. If a tune comes into my head when I don't have an instrument, it usually won't stay, and if I hum it, I'll find that the melody notes on their own don't tell me what chord sequence I might have been hearing in my subconscious.

That said, I do make notes of lines or song titles that occur to me.  I do them right away (now) on my phone or they'll be lost forever!

So, a guitar chord sequence is the start, then nonsense humming or dummy words sung to an evolving melody.  Sometimes those words start to make sense, or combine with each other, sometimes a disjointed phrase annoyingly won't go away and I have to stick with it.  It fits the song, not what I may later try to impose on the song.  So I find it's best to leave it or tweak it very slightly if necessary.

Rhymes are very important for me.  I find when listening to the best songs, an emotional phrase that lands perfectly on a rhyme, lands more satisfyingly and becomes more hard hitting because of that.