Don,

I agree with what Eddie says. What I do is read my lyrics in time against a drum beat. If I can't get them to fit the drum rhythm, I modify them until they do.

One of the great things about BIAB is being able to put in a chord progression, pick a style and say the lyrics in time while the style is playing. I find that writing lyrics this way is very productive.

Here's an example of what I mean. It's a song on which both MarioD and I collaborated. Initially, I wrote some lyrics and spoke them in time against a BIAB accompaniment. I then sent the file to Mario for him to write a melody.

Note: the below files are streaming audio so they'll take a few seconds to kick in.

... link to original file sent to Mario

And here's the final product after tweaking tempo, lyrics, melody, chords.

... link to final song

Hope this gives you some food for thought.

Regards,
Noel