General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

Oh, I had intended it to be an invitation, not a challenge.

I do respect and admire the near-spontaneous way you turn a song off the cuff, as it were.

However, my way of working is the polar opposite. It is a process which takes months.

I need to write the words, first as a poem, and then polish them. Forget about them. Return to them with a fresh eye- breakout of tram-line thinking, and re-asses them. Experiment with complete re-formulations: challenge my pre-occupation with whatever I may regard as precious, and see how it runs without that feature etc etc. Sometime I have fifty or so versions, and still years later will modify what I have written if it is warranted.

As for the music, I have to let myself unconsciously experiment with snatches of melody, initially not caring too much if they fit, but experiencing the congruence (or lack thereof) with the verbal content. I often like to do the ISIHAC trick and sing to an existing melody which I know will not fit. It is like some complex multi-dimensional puzzle, and I am seeking an outcome wherein the shape fulfils a number of criteria. But does so with aesthetic elegance, and is able to deliver an emotional payload where the whole is more than the sum of the parts.

It takes Time.