Hey everybody

I've got a minor problem whenever it comes to writing songs, and I'm hoping someone here has some advice on how I get past it. I have tried doing some songwriting in the past few months, but I always find it incredibly difficult to come up with great lyrics for a song, or even not-too-shabby ones. Everytime I sit down with my laptop and say "Here we go, I'm gonna write a great song", I end up staring at a blank screen for hours before giving up, or end up with something that even a 4-year-old kid could write better and I decide to erase it because it's that badly written.

So I'm asking: Is there a great way to learn to come up with great lyrics on the spot? I've read that Sweet Child O' Mine was written in just 5 minutes (not sure if it's true, though), and Smoke On The Water just narrates an incident that Deep Purple witnessed. Those two examples make it seem so simple. It may just be that I'm suffering from Writer's Block (which I won't deny is a possibility), but I find it to be a real problem coming up with any half-way decent lyrics. Any advice is highly appreciated.