From http://www.songdoctor.co.nz/ - lots more hints on this page.
KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) is a great acronym to have at the front of your songwriting brain at all times. Here’s why. It reminds us that songs are short and they travel in real time. It reminds us that songs are heard. We hear them. It reminds us of the purpose of songs – they provoke emotion – we should be feeling something. It reminds us that we, your audience, should be able to remember something about your song after ONE listen. It reminds us that we should be able to sing along – not necessarily professionally, but at least in the shower or in the car in a traffic jam,or while we’re vacuuming or when we’re slumped on the couch heartbroken, sobbing under a blanket. Oh yes, my friends – keep it simple, stupid!
Simple does not mean shallow or dumbed down.
Simple does not mean easy to write. If it was everyone would be doing it!
Simple can be two chords – Eleanor Rigby, two words - Anchor Me, or two notes -Yesterday.
Simple means one story well told, one emotion well reached, a connection made with an audience.
Simple asks what are you trying to say, and expects an unequivocal answer.
Simple is authentic. Simple is uncomplicated.
Simple touches your heart and makes you listen.
And it’s not just my view….
Concision, admittedly, is the essence of pop: its discipline, its challenge, its genius. To tell a story or sum up an attitude in a handful of sung verses or a salvo of hip-hop rhymes, and to unite them with music that lodges those words in memory — and, at best, also summons the feeling behind them — is a songwriter’s job description…. Yet musical or verbal complexity can easily add clutter rather than depth, not to mention idle pretension. That’s why popular music regularly goes through back-to-basics purges like punk (both the 1970s and 1990s editions), electro (with iterations in every decade since the 1970s) and for that matter rock ’n’ roll itself. New York Times
Here’s how. Look at each of the building blocks of your song and see if you can do things, well, simpler!
1. The Point. What are you trying to say? What is the intention or purpose of your song? Is it easy to understand? Will enough of us care about it? Can you explain clearly what your song is saying in one sentence? Universal messages of love in all its forms, songs of longing and hope, sorrow, collective anger or outrage or something upbeat and danceable to get you through all have their place. From my experience, this is the bit that most newbie songwriters skip over.
2. Lyrics. Do you use everyday, conversational language? Like you're talking to us. Is there at least one image that helps us see what you see, clear as day? Do you have the title in the chorus? Does the title tells us the point of your song? Does your story keep reinforcing your song’s purpose?
3. Structure – does the shape or form of the song allow the purpose of the song to clearly unfold. We know where we’re going. There are verses, a chorus, maybe a bridge. It has pieces that are put together in a way we expect, with
a beginning, middle and an end.
4. Chords – the progression is strong, maybe even the same throughout the entire song. This is trending in pop songwriting now. Royals uses the same three chords throughout and they’re all major. (D/C/G).
5. Melody – the tune is easy to sing and easy to learn, in a range that everyone can sing (not more than an octave plus two). The melody is made a repeated motif (small group of notes that builds the melody, like words make a phrase). Yesterday uses a three note motif made of just two notes. Key professional songwriters like Max Martin start with the melody. Just saying....
6. Rhythm - your song has a clear groove or beat. It makes people move - a little or a lot. At same stage, preferably in the chorus, all the elements in your song hit the first beat of the bar.
7. Unplugged – if the song works with just you and a guitar, or just you and a piano or just you singing, and people get it, you’ve got a song.
8. Repetition – you repeat stuff – the chords you use, the melodic motif, the title in the chorus, the chorus, the groove.
Simple means that we can hear and understand each of the building blocks of the song. How all the pieces of the puzzle fit together is what makes the magic!
Developing your song
Fragments and motifs
You should explore a range of music works in different styles and genres. Explore the way each composer develops and structures substantial pieces of music from fragments of musical ideas or motifs. You are to use those ideas and incorporate those ideas to help develop your piece.
Develop these motifs into musical ideas using musical devices such as repetition, sequence, extension, melodic and rhythmic manipulation, decoration, fragmentation, diminution, augmentation, layering, inversion, and variation of timbre, texture, and harmony. You could use each device individually, or in combination with other devices.
The fragments of an idea (pre-task)
Brainstorm to generate as many musical fragments and motifs of your own as you can. These may be short rhythmic and/or melodic figures, a chord, a short progression of chords, or melodic intervals. You are not composing a tune yet. Don’t rush this initial creative phase. Jot down these fragments and motifs on paper, sing them to help you store them in your memory, or record them. You may find that you have ideas when you are having breakfast or sitting on the bus, or that ideas come to you most freely when you are playing your instrument or singing.
Growing the fragments
Select the musical fragments and motifs that interest you most.
Develop these into longer musical ideas by using the compositional devices you have studied. You may create a series of musical phrases that will form one section of your final composition.
As you develop your musical ideas, think about the instrument/s that will best express them. Take care to create musical ideas that suit the instruments you are composing for (for example, consider the range of the instrument especially for brass and woodwind).
Structure your ideas
Using the musical ideas you have developed from your initial musical fragments and motifs, structure them to create the first of your songs. Aim to compose a piece of music that is at least two minutes in length, but remember that the quality of your music is more important than the quantity.