My advice to first-time songwriters would be you know the person you are writing the songs about. First know that. Then write a letter to them, what you would say if you could. That’s why I listen to music. It says how I feel better than I could. And it says what I wished I had said when that moment was there. So I would say be as direct as you possibly can. If you need to dial it back later, then, I guess, do that — but for me, the more details the better.

Write here, Right now. Or Right here, Write now! Whichever you prefer. Don’t wait to be a writer. Stop aspiring and just write. There are stories in your heart that want to be written right now, your very own stories. If you wait too long, they will either get stale to you, or they will change as you change and grow, and they will never be what they would have been if you had written them right away. If you mind boils with story ideas, start a file on your computer or in a spiral notebook (They still work just fine for me!) and jot those ideas down. Leave plenty of space on the page so you can come back and add more to the skeleton as it comes to you. But trap the idea on paper before it fades away. Only you can write those stories; if you don’t write them, they die unborn.