It was easier getting excited about writing original songs when I was 18 in a new wave / punk band.
I'd only heard a mere few thousand songs to be 'inspired' by...

40 years later, after hearing tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of other, newer, artists songs in all diverse genres;
I can't start writing anything without it seconds later reminding me of something else much better...

All my efforts get quickly rejected and abandoned...
I'm an very stern self critic.

It's 20 years since I last completed a song that I was satisfied didn't sound too much like any other,
but it still got stored in a notebook and forgotten, because i thought it was too dull...

...thank f@ck for trad folk...!!!