Finding rhymes is easy.

Finding thoughts is harder.

Think about what story of your life you would like to tell. Then tell it.

My CD included a song about my sobriety, 1 about a girl I thought I might like to marry, though I am currently 0 for 3 in the marriage game, 1 telling a girl who ran away to LA to live with her dream man that she was making a huge mistake and she'd be back (she is), and the rest were songs about having my heart ripped out and stomped on.

All that is my way of saying that you need to tap into your emotions and make your songs real, or you are just writing empty, banal, "let me see how many rhymes I can find for 'moon'.... " songs.

Songs need to be three things.

Aural (pleasant to listen to)
Intellectual (something to think about)
and most important
Visceral (something you can feel).

Floyd commented on this thread. He is an outstanding writer, blending catchy melody with lyrics that alternate between making you laugh and making you cry. Find and listen to his song "Feeling Nothing At All". That's how you do it. Do what he does.

Now, that is like saying "See how that pilot landed that plane? Do it like that." It takes work. I see a lot of posts on these forums from people who apparently think this is easy and it doesn't take effort. It takes some musical knowledge, willingness to put in boring repetitions during practice hours, and it takes some general intelligence and a very capable skill set with the English language. (That's the intellectual part.) It also takes a thick skin because if you want to wade into any art form you will have critical listeners (like me) who are going to tell you when you did well as well as when you did not. It is important that you understand that in the phrase "constructive criticism" the key word is "constructive". I said in an earlier post that on your way to writing good songs you are going to write a lot of bad ones. The key is to get better on every piece, whether that "better" means a better chord progression, more cleverly written lyrics, or better song construction. Also remember that there are no rules. If you read a book on how to build furniture, all of your furniture is going to look like the stuff churned out by the guy who wrote the book. Music is subjective. Do it your way. Start a song with a chorus. Start one with a bridge. Your song, your rules. Your circus, your monkey.

Also remember that a lot of people take music VERY seriously. Some (like me) take it was TOO seriously. I attribute that to my having been in music for 60 years, including several in college where I got a BA in it. Get better every day, and I'll not only buy your album, when you come to Cleveland, I'll buy tickets to see you play. Very supportive community here. Take advantage just short of asking us to do it FOR you. We're here for you.

I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.

1. How much did you make in 2023?
2. Send it to us.