I have had a couple of goes at writing songs, not very successfully, and was wondering this morning: How do the singer/songwriters go about doing it so well?

Do you make the tune first and the lyrics to fit it or do you write the lyrics and then compose the song? Is it a mixture of these? It's not quite a chicken and egg thing is it?

I am always amazed when a great song is written how a fusion happens between the music and the words. If one or the other is only slightly adrift it can all be ruined. So, my question to those who write, compose and sing their own songs is as the above... How do you set about it?

Best wishes

mp