Originally Posted by: VHLOlots of songs come from one or two ideas like "smells like teen spirit":
riff (clean) riff(distorted) verse(most part by drums and bass) riff riff2 ...
2 riffs and some fills on the verse ...oops and a solo which is very melodic
as you see this song is based in dynamics hear how the energy comes up and down and this one of the most important aspects of songwriting and arragement
try writing some riffs (or struming patterns) for a verse and a chorus then when you repeat this change the pattern keping the chords and add some fills, just play some notes of the chords one octave higher if nothing comes to your mind, that stuff gives new life to the same thing (like the verse 1 and 2 of "ordinary" by train they use wha wha one this trick)
remember making a big diference between verse and chorus. knowing about what chord of certain tonality is the strongest also helpl so learn some teory........