The three cornerstones of good songwriting are:

• The purpose of a song is to convey an emotion
• Lyrically a song is about one moment in time from an emotional point of view
• Musically a song is a balance of repetition and surprise

This post digs a little deeper into the lyric writing aspect.

I am primarily a musician. That comes easily to me. I had to work at writing effective lyrics.

• One moment in time
  That one moment is usually now. If the singer is remembering something, it’s in the context of what’s going on now. If the singer is thinking ahead, he’s still planted in the reality of now.
• Say one thing
  Each verse should basically say one thing. When you plan your song, come up with an outline of the entire song something like this:
  V1 – one thing
  CHORUS
  V2 – one thing
  CHORUS
  V3 or BRIDGE – one thing
  CHORUSEach time the chorus comes back, it should have a slightly different meaning because of the new context of the verse that sets it up.
• Punch lines
  There are always two planes of thought in a well written song: the logical plane and the emotional plane. Each couplet should be written with the two planes of thought intersecting at the last word (the link word). in other words, write it like a joke. A joke is also the intersection of two different planes of thought. The listener is led along the logical line of thought until the last word, which introduces a completely different plane of thought.Here’s a pun to illustrate the point – My last job was working in a muffler factory, but I had to quit. It was too exhausting.   “Exhaust” is the link word – joining the logical reason for quitting with the physical function of a muffler.Construct the last line of your couplet from the thought generated by the last word (the link), then work backwards. Come up with your setup rhyme word and write the lead-in line that ends with that word. That way you always write to the strong word.
• Bridges
  My rule of thumb for bridges is this. If you’ve written two verses and choruses and still feel that you haven’t made your point, then you need to write a lyric bridge. Lyric bridges can go two directions. They can be universal, as if to say everyone feels this way or this is the way the world goes. They can also go inward, as if to say this is how I truly feel in my heart. Either way, when you write your bridge, forget about your rhyme scheme or your lyric rhythm. Get right to the heart of the matter and just blurt out what it is that you are trying to say. Once you have that bit of prose, then you can let it lead you as to what to do musically with it.

I hope this helps you when you hit a lyric wall.