The ability to live with imperfection. There's a good quote: "Songs aren't finished, they're abandoned." If you feel that every line has to be genius, and every rhyme has to be perfect, and you can't sneak in an extra syllable now and then - you might finish a song eventually, but you probably won't.

I also agree with what Bert said above about the ability to throw things away when they're not working - whether it's a bit of melody or lyric, or the whole damn song.

Marion

SSP: my songbook