What is the first step to becoming a professional songwriter in the music business?

In my opinion the first step is to start out slow. Perform for audiences at your local hot spots to gain notoriety. Professionals like Elton John started out this way.

Finding people that enjoy your music is above all the first thing you must accomplish.

Get a good quality recording of some of your best songs. You will need something to represent you as you play out. You can leave the best impression in the world at a gig, but if you can be quickly forgotten if you don't have something for them to take to remember you by.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.