If anyone knows, please comment me!
Just kidding!
There are 7 factors that I require when writing a good song and they are:
1) Emotions: The best place to find these are through a woman or a bottle of whiskey (note* whiskey was created after emotions were lost on a woman)
2) Catchy melody: Usually my songs start with some sort of chord progression on the guitar but not always. Then a vocal melody wrapped around the chords in an
interesting and satisfying way. If you interviewed most famous songwriters, they’d tell you most of their best songs seemed to channel through them
in an almost effortless fashion. If I look back on the songs I’ve written, I’d agree that my stronger songs were the ones that seemed to write themselves.
3) Strong lyrics: If you put strong lyrics with a very catchy melody then you’ve got something to be proud of for sure. For me, lyrics don’t come easy. I seem to lack something
important to say for the most part. Note to self: must find a woman or buy more whiskey.
4) Re-writing: This is where a lot of people fail miserably. They’re always too damn proud of their first take and are afraid to throw away something to make the song better because
they really like one line. Changing Chords and melody can lift a song too. Sometimes for example, you can replace the root chord with a minor 6 and give it some mood.
Or again, pour a stiff drink.
5) Play it live: Play your song to your friends and ask for honest opinions. Don’t let the negative vibes get you down either. A lot of the time, you’re friends won’t know what they’re talking about-
(Those drunken wankers). But a good song is pretty much universally liked and you’ll be able to weed out the good from the bad and generally get a sense of what is strong.
6) Write lots: You’ll get different opinions on this but for me, writing a lot of songs just makes me a better songwriter. It’s like learning to play the guitar. If you practice every day, you’re going to
be much better than if you play it once a month.
7) Sleep on it: It’s weird but often I’ll wake up in the morning and play the new song again and it doesn’t have the same impact on me. That’s a sign that perhaps it just wasn’t a good song.
Or your just hung over to the nines!
Kelly Pettit 
I like the “pour a stiff drink” part of song writing.
I would be a good song writer; too bad I don’t play an instrument 😦
I found your blog indirectly through someone elses…that is the cool part of randomly strolling along the blog-way. It looks as if you are just getting started with this whole blog thing and I’ve just got to take a second and cheer you on. You are already doing better than I am. I’m working at working up the courage to even float my thoughts out there. So I am practicing by making comments on blogs I admire first.
About writing songs…I’ve been in on that process a few times, but from the lyrics end only. I envy people who have the language of music at there disposal. I only have words…lots of words and also emotions…way too many of those for my own good.
One thing I do know. If a song is written, just to write a song, without any of the background emotion, without any visceral feelings attached then it will always feel hollow. Good music MUST have a soul, and the only way to breath life into a song is to give it a living, breathing soul.
Talk about verbal diarrhea, I’ve gone on too long, so I will shut up now. Hang in there.
Thanks for the comments Firefly and planetross. As you can tell Firefly, I’m just throwing my ideas out there. For me, these blogs are a good place to get things off my chest. Give it a try. You’re entitled to your own opinion (providing it’s the same as mine -lol).