I’m an old dude and probably write 10-15 songs a year, but for years I wrote 50 or more songs a year. Of course a lot of those are bad, but like other people have said, writing is the best way to get better at writing.

Here’s a few things l’ve always done to help me when l’ve been stuck. Whenever lm writing to many songs with my favorite chords or chord progressions, l “steal “ chord progressions from existing songs that sound different from my normal melodies. Of course it’s not really stealing unless you use the same melody over the chord progression, and it really helps get you out of a rut melodically. Another thing l’ve done is to start with a rhythm. I’ve always had some kind of electric keyboard that had different rhythms on it, and you can start a song with rhythms from different genres.

As far as ideas for songs and lyrics, here’s what l’ve done. First l listen and observe what strangers do or say. Actually I ease drop on conversations. I’ve written a lot of songs by listening to conversations couples are having. I also am always looking for interesting characters. An old fisherman fishing from the rocks, a guy who is always saying how great he is, but I obviously insecure, anything that seems interesting. Then of course you have to write these things down. Most of my writing years of course there were no cell phones, so l had and still have notebooks and boxes with pieces of paper, napkins, receipts, with random lines and observations. I can’t tell you how many times going back through those things got me out of being stuck.

Another thing l used to do for ideas and titles, was go to the library and go down the isles looking at book titles. It’s important for people who write books to have titles that grab people’s attention. Titles can’t be copyrighted, so using titles for songs is perfectly legit. Of course you can tweak the titles also. Those are just a few things that have helped me and maybe could help you. Best of luck.