I have to write the lyrics in one fell swoop. If I get hung up on a verse, I skip the verse and come back later. Sometimes I can't get past that verse and leave the song for another day. When that day comes, I get hung up in the same place and the song never gets finished. There's one I started writing last autumn, and I'm still stuck. Wrote the tune first (March '01), and it's just too hard to get the sort of lyrics I want to fit the tune. Very short phrases, and rhymes within lines...

For me it's easier doing the words first, then the tune, but I have to have the rhythm before anything else. It's easier for me to write tunes, though - I've never had a block of any sort. Some of them may wind up being not so good, but I can easily finish them. I suppose some folks are the other way around, and get blocked on tunes but not words.

On the other hand, sometimes when you let the song sit for a while, you'll notice mistakes, awkward words, phrases or rhymes, that you don't see right after you've written it. Sometimes, if it's just a line or two you need, it'll come to you once you're not trying so hard. It's best for me to get most of it done, then come back and edit it, not finish writing it.