Lol...

Being Gay and / or Jewish seems to help a lot- Then again, I did spend WAY too long working in music theatre.

My father who is a poet rather than songwriter always says "you have to be prepared to murder your babies"

Ie, revise to the point of destroying/completely changing the original if necessary.

Honestly, though, I wish I knew - I'm a dreadful songwriter (hence only ever doing trad stuff that was obsolete when grandad was a boy)

Cheers,
J