Departure point: A song DNA

I have the constant feeling that what i call "my songs" actually have chosen me to exist, i don´t write them, they inscribe in me words and notes revealing something i can´t think about, but i´m able to feel.

Departure point is always very simple, but is hard to keep it that way. So i take the guitar and just repeat and repeat this line in order to let it be clearer, more defined. The "less is more" rule guide me. Usually it has rhythmic pattern, a few words, a basic melodic line, but  also contains a full story, a clear subject, a vivid image. 

This very brief initial segment contains all the essential elements i need to build a song. Keeping it simple and pure, released of any preconception is my main focus. When i can do it , I have a song "DNA" to work with.

Everything else is just work and more work. A rational process of:  this works, that don´t. I work very hard on the melody line after i write the first verse or the chorus (whatever comes first)  I use the piano then, cause i can have a better visual sense of variations and possibilities.

Before building the whole structure i trust in these little piece of information. An idea for a song - as far as i have read in other songwriters experience - have a very syncretic form, developing the little elements that comes form initial inspiration is, off course, 99% of the process, but i find in these little "gens" a valuable point of departure in the always unpredictable journey of a new song.

How does it start for you?