How To Write A Song

Step 3 Babble

Now that you have a vague subject, it's time to holler gibberish. I play guitar, so generally I'll start playing while thinking about "the subject," and sing random verbiage. Eventually, an relevant word or phrase will fall together with some musical element that's splattering around; a noise the guitar is making, a piece of the random melody, etc. Then you can build on that. If you don't play an instrument, you may just want to write out some flow-of-consciousness text until something on the page "resonates."
I have countless pages of babble. Keep these forever! They may contain seeds of great songs that you didn't notice during the initial babble-session, that will sprout years from now.
Some folks might want to record this stage... you're welcome to give it a try if you don't mind the notion that your babbling has been recorded. I'd rather scribble.