and SJH... yeah, write what you know, but if you're like me and don't know much, it doesn't leave me with much! LOL!

"Write what you know" may be good songwriting advice but I don't think I said that. What I believe is that you have to "connect" with the listener which should be obvious. You can do that in a serious way or can do it playfully. But something about your song must "hook" the listener. It may not even be lyrics at all! Here are some "hooks" that I recognize: a "clever" rhyme; a guitar riff (think Pretty Woman) or a good story line(think "The Gambler"). Now the Gambler is a song without a lot of musical hooks so it is a good one to study. It it loaded with a variety of hooks beside the compelling story line. There are too many to discuss in this forum because you could write an essay around each one of them. If you just took the the last part of the song you hear: "Somewhere in the darkness, the gambler he broke even". The writer could have simply said he died. But what he did was to phrase the information, which concludes his story, in language that connected with his theme. That doesn't happen by accident. It is just great songwriting. Did the writer have an intimate knowledge of his character and his world? Probably not. He certainly did apply his knowledge of human nature to the song but really the song is an example of the "craft" of songwriting applied masterfully. That is why I think every aspiring songwriter should study it even if all he does it write Rap.

I hope I don't insult anyone when I say this but my honest opinion is that anyone who has the ambition of becoming a songwriter and has not studied the "form" of songwriting; or has not listened studiously to, and critically analyzed hit songs, has a near zero a chance of writing a hit. And if you don't sing, don't play and can't write music, either learn to do it or team up with a trusted co-writer who does because a song is, without exception, signed sealed and delivered by musicians.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Albert Einstein