Some great ideas and thought starters being discussed here. Last year I went with a theme and the music, the emotion, the lyrics fell out of that theme - it helped me make something that felt honest.
This year, I'm toying with the same approach, pinpointing a theme and see what comes out.
I'm busy working on another album for later in the year so thats helpful because it means I won't really think about AWC until I need to and then it will be 'ah shit! what am I gonna do?'