For me, songwriting was hard. If you sing enough songs you begin to realize that there are those that endure for good reasons. Here's what I learned from my association with good songwriters. I'm trying to apply these principles to lyric writing but easier said then done.

1. Specificity. Describe in detail sounds, sights, smells, colors, scenes and people how they look, dress, act........etc.

2. Fresh images. Not "ham and eggs"..."June-spoon" or cliches from other songs. Use something like IE: The winter tree limbs like bony fingers reach to the sky"........

3. Make 'em rhyme if you can otherwise it sounds like lazy writing.

4. Interior rhymes are sometimes effective.

5. Some of the principles of poetry apply. There are "rules".

6. Please don't preach. Disembodied sermons are boring. It's really funny to see some young person who hasn't lived much yet proclaim great philosophical ideas about the "meaning of life".

7. Economy in language. The best most endurable songs are simple. Even the more ostensibly complex ones. Check out "Strunk and White".

8. Keep the focus on the subject matter.

9. Central theme. Keep it in mind. In pop songs they call it the "hook".

Frank