how to turn licks into songs

well, in my experience i usaully considered licks to be moves or phrases that are found in solos, whereas riffs are almost the same, except they aren't found in solos but can be part of the song as a melody or something (but i'm not an expert, it's just my own personal opinion). Think of riffs and licks as ideas, and think that writing a song or solo, is like writing a story, you can't just go and throw any ideas on a page and call it a story.

Although it's a great idea to learn licks and riffs, it doesn't mean that you can write music. In my experience, in order to write music you really need to be able to analyse music. In other words, the best way to write music IS to really know how music works, and the simplest way to do this is to learn to play songs (entire songs, especially if you want to learn to write music).

I don't really think there is a theory to writing songs, and with such contrasting songwriting out there (if you don't believe me, listen to a white stripes album and then listen to a Rush album) it's hard to normalize music (and besides, who would want to??). I'm not saying music theory is bad, it is actually very useful, but theory will only give you so much.

I may not be an expert songwriter or musician, but i think this will really help you out when trying to construct solos, riffs or even entire songs.

Don't just learn the lick. Learn what the rest of the band is playing underneath the lick, what the lead played before the lick and where he went afterwards. Learn to play it in different keys, different positions and tempo. Then once you end up in a similar situation you can use the lick, part of the lick or a variation of it, to play.

Remember that great licks usually sound great not because they are cool on themselves but because they fit in perfectly. Don't try to play good licks randomly as it will sound far less cool. :D