Forgetting (see previous post), is a trick of the mind that I find super-useful in writing songs, lyrics, riffs and chord sequences. Practicing & Forgetting is the secret key to my creative process. Always trying to be creative. Always trying to find inspiration, without really trying at all; the trick is to stumble across those "aha" moments of discovery. I try my best to not be consciously working. I am out to fool myself, trick myself, in fact, I am not working, I am just playing, trying to be in an open-state where ideas descend upon me. That is how it feels. I don't make up songs, they appear, I accidentally stumble across a new riff, or a lyric suddenly pops into my head. Often, later, with a new song, I wonder, "Where did that come from?"
New songs really do seem like gifts from the Great Cloud of Unknowing.
Of course, it is best to always to be playing/practicing. Having a guitar in hand, strumming, putting my fingers on the fret-board in new ways. I don't think of notes, music theory. Thinking is not it. I often use alternate tunings. Suddenly the guitar is a new and strange thing.
It also helps to have collaborators. I work with two very different song-writing partners. They are both unique human beings, and the work with each reflects those intimate relationships. It always a challenge. A fun and captivating thing. I do my best to be present. Be Here Now. Trying to catch lightening in a bottle. To get entangled in a flash of creative magic. It's "the good work." So good, it's not really work.