What is your songwriting process?

It seems like everyone I've known writes music in vastly different ways, and I'm always curious to find out how other musicians go about the process, so:

How do you write songs? Do you start with a little riff or progression on a keyboard/guitar/bass/vocals? Do you write alone or with other people? Do you get feedback or do you primarily just go on your own intuition? Do you do everything or only select parts? Do you write quickly and intensively or let an idea progress over time in a more natural fashion? Do you write with a concept in mind and seek to fulfill a purpose (e.g. outro, intro, climax, interlude, etc), or do you just go in with an open mind? Do you write a lot of material and scrap a lot of the bad stuff, or do you limit what you write and make sure that it's of quality?

Those are a lot of questions, please do not feel like you have to answer them all specifically, but they're there if you want them.

Anyways.

I tend to write alone with little input from other people, at least initially, and work on a song for long, long periods of time. I very rarely come in with an initial riff or progression, but I often come in with an idea or concept. When I decide to write a song, I very rarely know what will come out of the effort, or if anything will come out at all. If I try for a half hour or so and nothing sticks, I stop and don't try again for a while. I'm very selective of what I develop into a song, but I try many many many times to write a song. On my computer, I have hundreds of files and folders for songs, but many are empty or have only a track or two. The more I've written, the faster the process seems to go, but I think this is mostly because I've become more obsessed. Whereas before, I would write a song slowly over the course of a week or so, now I'll work on it intensively for a day or two and then make minor tweaks for the next week.

The only thing that seems consistent is that I can't write songs with people, because my idea of songwriting is much too experimental. Instead of focusing on a riff or a hook, I'll focus on how an instrument sounds, spending minutes and hours pushing buttons and sliding sliders, and this is very much a one person job. I get most ideas just by fiddling around, and it's a very messy and unprofessional way to go about writing, and it's very boring for other people to be a part of. Also, I tend to have a vision of what I want to accomplish, and it's hard to articulate to another person, even if they're behind the same vision, and they usually are not.

So that's a rambling overview of what I do. Similar to you, at all? Perhaps?

I tend to prefer a variety of approaches with the bands I'm involved in (The Abodes and Foilface). I prefer music first and like being involved in songs where things seem to naturally evolve without having to think verse, verse, chorus, verse, verse, chorus - although classic song structures are not to be ignored.

I dont have one, i play, delete, play delete, stick with that, play delete, play delete, stick with that. etc etc etc

I write alone and how I do it tends to vary. Usually I'll try to start with an "anchor," something I can base the rest of the track around. Depending on what type of music it is, it could be a rhythmic pattern or a simple drone or texture or pad type of soundscape.

Launch software, rush through thousands of samples testing them with my midi keyboard. If I find a sound usable, I arrange it with atmospheric sequence of chords adding more layers / FX and constantly rearranging repetitive song structure. Adjustment also take place all the time. Finalization consists of listening to the whole thing many times, improving sound, catching bugs and trying to fix them.