New Zealand-based songstress Lorde has started work on the follow-up album to her well-received debut offering 'Pure Heroine', but she has revealed that the creative process has been tough so far. 

The hitmaker took to her official Twitter page yesterday (April 1) and explained to her followers that she feels as though she is struggling to write at the moment although she has since deleted the tweet: "Today I tried to write a chorus for almost 4 hours. I wish that was an April Fool's joke (sic)."

She also received a tweet from someone who asked if she needs more inspiration, which read "do I need to send you more inspiration a la Travolta/Newton-John?", and she replied: "We were actually writing a 'Total Eclipse Of The Heart'-inspired jam today. That's pretty far up your alley, huh?"

Back in February, producer Joel Little hinted that Lorde's return to the studio was very much on the horizon: "That's the plan, basically. We're just going to start writing some songs. We haven't got some planned out 'this is what it's going to sound like'...I think we're just going to start writing and when it starts to feel right, we'll know that it's right. It's pretty simple really."

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Watch Lorde performing in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge here: