While songwriting and songcraft have been discussed and reported by a range of authors in the literature, there appears to be a lack of research-based inquiry into singer-songwriters' compositional processes and how they formulate, create, and design their vocal performance of their original songs. In this doctoral research project, the participants were six professional singer-songwriters (SSWs) who self-identified as performers and focused primarily on writing and performing their own original compositions while also performing covers when required to do so in certain performance environments. Three stages of data collection were designed and conducted to interrogate the topic: Stage 1 consisted of interviews; Stage 2 involved a workshop performance for the participants; and Stage 3 was a focus group discussion. Additionally, as a professional SSW, performer, and teacher in her own right, the researcher positioned herself within the study, documenting this participation as an autoethnographic report. Information derived from this study sheds new light on a range of elements pertaining to SSWs' craft, including insights into the compositional process, how singer-songwriters formulate their vocal performance of their own songs, whether their own vocal capability is considered during the compositional phase, whether singer-songwriters inherently know how to sing their own songs, and whether the formulation of the vocal performance of an original song is the same as singing 'cover' songs (songs composed/performed by others). Findings from the data sets have illuminated a multiplicity of elements that underpin SSW participants' approaches to their craft.