I'm getting back into writing songs after a pretty long hiatus and I'm really interested in how others approach their music. In particular, this is the first time I am writing with another artist/band and trying to figure out how to turn the raw material (jam sesh) into a finished tune.

I'm also writing a bunch of folk songs again. Chords and melodies always come pretty easily, but I've always struggled with lyrics. Lately I've been trying to "learn to love the question" rather than search for an answer (I stole this from Rilke's Letters To A Young Poet). Instead of figuring what a song is about, I come up with a question and write lyrics about the question, leaving it mostly unanswered. The questions are cryptic and open ended but I've found they offer a lot of inspiration.

Anyway tldr - how do you write your tunes?