Songs ‘happen’ to songwriters.
No matter how rational they may be, that's the one superstition that almost every songwriter shares, despite all evidence to the contrary. Sure we can read books on songwriting, attend seminars and analyse the classics but deep down we believe that if that song doesn’t want to be written there’s nothing we can do about it. To paraphrase Tom Waits, we like music but we’re not sure that music likes us.