Whenever I consider a lyricist who works alone, I always feel compelled to offer this advice: work with a composer.

In other words, if you write a lyric all by yourself, you are free to call the shots on meter, rhythm, etc. You get to dictate the skeleton upon which the melody must conform. But you are also skipping out on the hard work of having to match the words and melody together.

To me, that's a critical piece of songwriting work, and it's often the hardest part. There are three ways to do it:

-If the music is written first, the burden falls on the lyricist.
-If the lyrics are written first, the burden falls on the composer.
-If the song is written together, the burden is shared.

So...if you are solely a lyricist, have you tried it all three ways?

http://www.soundclick.com/MarkKaufman