PING!
I am not a good person to ask about this, but I will try to tell you what I know.
Like so many I was in a garage band as a kid. We made a little money, but were only local and regional...around Houston, Corpus Christi, etc. I have written for 35 years. I write songs (music and lyrics, poetry, short stories....but mostly songs). I got a little more serious about my songwriting about 15 years ago. What I wanted at that time was to publish. I really do not need the money, but did feel that some of the pieces I wrote were better than most of the shit on the radio. So that is what I set about to do.
I think the subject is one that is personal to you. The subject really, in my opinion, is mostly secondary. I have written about living, dying, children, dogs, 9-11, old men, goals, dreams, loss, songwriters, nonsense, daylilies, choices, God, Christmas, and many, many other subjects. I think the songs mays start with a hook, either a lyrical hook or a musical hook. Something which catches your attention. Then, for me, merging lyric with melody is mostly about moods. For me, most songs are about setting a mood. If you want upbeat naturalness in your song you go with a major progesssion. If you want a sad, reflective, you work with a minor chord structure.
I find, most of the time, I begin with a chord or a little musical lick that strikes a mood in me....you have to be listening. Or, you may have a lyric rumaging around in your head that you cannot get rid of. Once the lyric, even if only very abbreviated, is merged with a melody, I find the song, often, (not always) almost writes itself. You have to get to that place where you really say what you want to say. Most of my songs come very quickly....within an hour....BUT....a few songs have taken me 2-3 years to get it where I want it to be.
For me, there is usually something I want to say. It is only fragmentary most of the time, but I wrote a song that said that thing.....
A song's a fragile fragment from the mind,
Woven into any shape and size,
Treasures to remind us of things not realized,
Pieces that were broken,
Words mostly unspoken,
Searching for their destiny in time.
.........This is a verse of a song I wrote recently...about songwriters....and I think it gives a little insite of my view of what a song actually is.
I could write 10 pages regarding these matters, but I will stop there.
Now, regarding what to do with the song. That depends upon what you want. Some write it for their wife, girlfriend, the children, or simply for themselves. If you want to publish it becomes more difficult. For example, my goal has been to get George Strait, Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, or Merle Haggard to record one of my songs. But it is next to impossible to get your song to those guys or those guys AR people to get it to them. I live 800 miles from Nashville, so I do not run in circles of people who know people. It is said there are 3000 songwriters in Nashville, Tenn. They are there interacting with people who know the right people. Even then, it is a difficult get consideration.
If you want to get recorded by an act I have learned that they want to hear the song, much as it will sound if they do record...in other words, fully produced. It is true they sometimes take a song recorded on a Sony tape played by a guitar and sung by the writer. I think Skip Ewing can do that...he knows everyone in Nashville, and has a beatiful voice. He is the exception.
So what I did was go into the studio and recorded some of the songs I felt were the better songs. Full production. We put down the tracts with the basics, guitar, piano, base, drums...then vocals, then brought in fiddle, steel guitar, mandolin, cello (on a few)...all done by studio musicians. I did the vocals...I was the only one who knew the songs,...and by that time it started becoming expensive. The first album we put together we did not work excessively on the vocals,....and that was a mistake....the next 3 albums we spent a lot more time on the vocals.....and you could tell...if you were listening.
What I learned after pitching the first set of songs was that I felt we needed better vocals. It is said that there are people in Nashville who are chosen to sing the vocal track who sound almost exactly like George Strait...and those songs would be pitched to Strait.
I have come to believe that the most important thing that would get you published is "who you know", and "who you know who knows someone". Do not be afraid to ask. Don't be rude about it, but be persistant.
I will stop here. If I can answer any more question, write me.