I didn't read all the comments.... so with that in mind.

This is the very advice that Jeff Steele gave to the folks in attendance at a songwriter's seminar that I had attended several years ago in LA. Write a song every day..... monday thru friday. At the end of a year you have approx 250 songs. At the end of 10 years you have 2500 songs. Somewhere in the middle, you're starting to get pretty good at writing.

He defined what it meant to write a song a day. It means a complete song. Music and lyrics and record it in some fashion so you don't forget it next week. It does not have to be a "swing for the bleachers" type of song. You need to sift through a lot of rocks to find the gems. Just complete the song from start to finish and with lyrics and music. When you write like this, you will absolutely become better.

In dog training, we say that a dog has to repeat something successfully 800 to 1000 times for it to grasp and master that something. It can be a sit or a search for a given odor in 10 acres of woodland. The same thing applies to us. We have to successfully repeat things to become good at them. It takes 10,000 hrs of practicing correctly to master something. Do the math.... that means 4 to 5 years of doing.

As a side, Steele said that after having done this (writing hit songs) for his whole life, he still has a rate of 1 in 10 songs that he writes is decent enough to consider demoing. Out of those, again maybe 1 in 10 of the demos get cut, and a small number of them hit the top 10 in the charts. At the time of the seminar, Steele had had 24 hit songs that were in the top 10 including #1.

Not many folks, including myself have the time to set and write a complete song, or anything for that matter, everyday. But that doesn't mean we can't write as much as we can and learn more about the process and the skills needed to improve.

No matter what your circumstances, try to improve. You owe it to yourself and that epitomizes the reason we take up a hobby or a pursuit in the first place.

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.