This is a good benchmark for understanding where you’re at in your songwriting and how that fits with a framework for practice, development and progression. The important point here is to suspend (or at least defer) any questions of the quality of your song writing. You may think you’re pretty good or mostly terrible. I may agree, or not. But what you need in terms of practice, technique, knowledge and inspiration will vary, and to a considerable degree. It will depend on at least three things:

• How experienced you are at practice of songwriting?
• At practical skills and technical competence you have as a musician, lyricist and performer.
• How much time and resource you’re willing and able to dedicate to developing the above

To help you explore this in terms of a combination of pre-conditions, aptitudes, abilities and experience you might ask yourself some of the following questions:

• Can you sing (or play a melody instrument) and what’s your register and range?
• Can you play a polyphonic/harmony instrument well enough to accompany a song?
• Can you read music, or follow chord symbols on those instruments?
• Can you sing/play along by ear, or improvise?
• Can you make a song up in your head or with little more than a tape recorder or pencil and paper?
• How many songs have you finished, shared or performed?
• Are they similar in style and quality or not?
• How long have you been interested in doing this as against how many hours have you spent doing it?
• Do you want to write songs to please yourself or to sell ten million singles? Or something in between? (!)