At our local monthly songwriting group meeting the question was asked of each of us "How do you keep motivated to write songs". There were various responses of course. A big one was encouragement from groups like this one, although I've been on numerous ones and personally I think this one is the greatest. Personally, I think this site has more experienced songwriters than some of the others I've been on. Also, it seems more people are deeply involved in this one. My motivation is that I love to write lyrics, almost driven to write. Then of course, it has to have a melody to go with it. I don't care about my songs really going anywhere, although that would be nice. I just want to be a good songwriter and like David said, maybe touch someone's heart. However, the music industry is going through a big change and we might all be on the cusp of something great, so now's the time to prepare and get that inventory. Wishing everyone on this site a creative and productive 2018.