"Do you write music, then write lyrics
Or do you write lyrics then music ?"

In my case I write both simultaneously.

As soon as I think of a line - my latest starts "I've no cause to doubt the things you say" - I'm already singing it over a selection of different chords until I stumble over a melody I like, then go on from there.

I then write those chords over the line:

G........Am..............................C
"Ive no cause to doubt the things you say

And head on to the next line humming away and trying chords and lyric lines and hopefully stumbling on something like this:
.........Dm....................................C
"I've no reason to assume that you won't stay"

This then has already given me my rhyme scheme - it's an AABB - so now I'm rolling!

In the vast majority of cases, the melody of the first two lines follows, or closely follows, the first two. So once I have a two line melody I pretty much have the melody for all the verses.

Sometimes I will write nonsense lyric lines if I get ahead of myself melodically, as this helps me remember the melody!! I can then go back later and re write!

Hey - it worked for Mr.McCartney!

In this particular song I had no title as a starting point so waited till I got to the chorus to see where it would take me.

For me, that can sometimes be the tricky part. But, as you may recall, I have a folder full of choruses
So sometimes, if I can't lead into a chorus I'll dig the folder out and see if I have one that can be manhandled to fit. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

In this case, I wrote a new chorus that worked fine.

It's now called "My World Is Yours" and I finished it yesterday. next step, record it!

As you said Seeker, just playing around with chords and in my case, just singing what comes into my head sometimes, will have you "hearing" a melody.

Maybe the four of us could form a band!!

Hope this helps someone.

Good day to one and all.

Martin

Music is what feelings sound like.