great thread.

if you're going to have the I chord at the the beginning of a verse, and also the chorus, maybe you want a really strong "middle eight" as the Beatles used to call the bridge...

Ob-la-di Ob-la-da, great example... Verse and chorus both start with the I chord, go to the IV chord for the middle eight...

I like think in terms of the album. One time I talked to a producer about how she decides which songs go first, which go second and the answer surprised me but makes sense. She tries to have the songs rise in key as the album progresses, have song keys move by a mostly rising circle of fifths, and/or to have slower songs at the beginning and faster towards the end.

For live shows I've heard it said that you should have 3 fast songs and a slow, before playing 3 fast songs again to have enough variety in the audiences listening experience.

In any event, an album should usually have about 13 songs or so which as about how many notes we have in the scale so you could start with the idea to try and write one song in C, another in C#, another in D. Have the song in C be slow, the C# be medium slow, D be a medium tempo, etc...

Then randomly insert compositional techniques into each theoretical song, The first song starts on the I chord, the second song starts on the i chord, the third song starts the chorus on the I chord, the fourth starts the chorus on the i chord, the fifth ends the chorus on the I chord and the sixth song ends the chorus on the i chord etc...

When you are getting around to putting actual notes in, is when you can open up your intuition and stop being theoretical about it and let your ear decide where that first I chord wants to progress to. Anything which doesn't work in the end, just throw it out. No harm no foul.