I'll pick a bone with you if I may, M.Ted. You said a bit further up that "writers are born, not made". Now, you probably didn't mean that as absolutely as I read it, but my viewpoint is almost the exact opposite. What everyone is "born with" (or perhaps more accurately "learns early on" is the facilities to observe, to think, and to express oneself in whatever manner. Later on they may (or may not) hone these facilities to a finer point through education and/or life experiences, yet may still not be writing songs - they also need the motive. The latter, when and if it comes, may be anything from intense feelings that need to be externalised, to a desire for fame and fortune, to a need to be understood by the world, to a desire to pass on a message etc etc. Some of those motives are bad masters; some are better.

The point I am trying to make is that for someone to begin writing songs, many things have to click into place, and the starting up process is haphazard. Most people have the potential to write songs, unless limited by upbringing or physical disability, just as most people have the potential to learn to ride a bicycle. That only some do, is unfortunate, because we all miss their potential creations. This is where songwriting courses can help to unlock the potential.

On 20th April 2001, at the age of 48, if you'd asked me to write a song I would have laughed because I "knew" I was incapable of doing so. On 21st April I wrote my first song. It was more than a year later, and some 60 or so songs down the line (including a couple of my biggest "hits" like "Friends like this" and "Emptyhanded") that I dared think of myself as a songwriter. If I had been "born" to be one, I was certainly unaware of it before 21/4/2001 - and I am still not 100% certain what it was that allowed me to do so.