Fragments.

This is what goes through my head. When I write lyrics.

0 minutes - I sit down at my piano, set my left elbow down on my piano, making a low shattering noise. And I think.

3 minutes - The title always comes first. From there, I can disperse the title throughout the song as I please. I reflect on past experiences or just odd little things that caught my eye and I write that thing down as a title. I always put an asterisk next to the title because the title's never definite when I first write it down.

8 minutes - I start searching for a hook, that first line of a song that grabs people attention right away. I never skip around and start with a chorus. Songs always fall apart when I do that. So the first line comes first and the rest of the song spurs out of that line.

These often also come from little details that I notice in things. In order to songwrite, you've got to be alert.

Examples:
It's coming straight to your house
Saltwater sure tastes good
excuse me excuse me, I just shot a man.

15-30 minutes - at this point, the first verse has been written down. It takes this long to get the verse written because I always pair up the lyrics with the music (I always come up with the music before the lyrics, it's common sense) over and over, making sure each syllable fits where it's supposed to. By 15-30 minutes, I'm usually satisfied.

35 minutes - choruses always come quick. I don't know why, I just have a thing for writing choruses. by 35 minutes, I have the first chorus and verse on paper.

From there, I never know how the song turns out. My songs tend to lack the orthodox structure (v1, c, v2, c, v3/bridge, c). But I always have a verse and a chorus before I run off into writing different sections.

I always finish writing lyrics after an hour. From there, the fine tuning begins. I beat the song to death, playing it again... and again... making sure that all of the transitions between verses, choruses, bridges, solos, are flawless. In order for there to be chaos, there needs to be structure.