Does anyone have any useful advice or good tips for how to get from the ‘tune in your head’ stage to the demo stage? This is an ‘in between’ stage i do not often see written about! I’m sure it’s obvious to the pro musician.
iphone voicenotes for me if I’m not in/near the studio
and if I don’t have an instrument in the vicinity I’ll just hum/sing the idea and tap out the rhythm on my thighs
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I try and map out a structure of the parts - I haven’t written lyrics at this stage so I might make a voice note recording of it with mumbled nonsense lyrics. Then I’ll take that structure across to my DAW and build it out part by part - I usually have one key instrument holding the main melodic structure, then I add some fake drums - and then I start adding everything else. When the demo feels fairly “done”… Then, and only then, I finalize some lyrics and record the demo vocal 
Once I’ve locked that structure in I do tend to stick to it because it becomes like the songs scaffolding
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I’ve tried all manner of ‘handy’ solutions including mini digital 4 tracks, phone 4 tracks, handheld multimedia fx etc. All were a distraction, and (maybe just because I’m stuck in my ways) I always go back to writing on acoustic guitar and recording on a phone dictation app, then straight onto DAW much like @Restacked
The DAW is 'demo/writing stage and files will get sent between collaboraters until the track is written (without drums). Then (if band) the band learns the song (much tab is exchanged) and the drum parts get added/written with the band working in a live room.
Then everything gets recorded for real on the DAW. It’s a slow way to work, mostly due to geographical challenges!
I personally think that avoiding DAW for the sake of it is a mistake; it’s just such a fast and enabling and creative recording process compared to anything else, particularly at writing/demo stage.
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Yeah I love the DAW as a writing tool, because I can chop stuff up and copy and paste and wiggle things around very quickly until I’m at a point where it feels like a solid structure that I can build on. I like to have a drum pattern to play to - if I can have something that ‘feels’ right for the song it means everything I play over the top fits together so much better than if I just used a click.
But drums or a click is definitely essential to my basic process - even if the song ultimately ends up being recorded off the clock, at the writing stage the drums/click is mega helpful to make the song cut-uppable and restructurable.
I also often write a song on an instrument that never even ends up being in the final version of the song. So stuff written on piano ends up with no piano, and songs written on guitar end up on synths or something else. All the ideas get piled into the DAW and then refined back from there.
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Thanks for all this my loves this is great! 
Sing the melody straight into voice note. Then as soon as you can pick up your instrument of choice and try to either replicate the melody or find the thing that goes with it.
You should get enough to then work with into a demo.
Pre demo phase is definitely a thing for me, it’s like the ideation.
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