CREATING PIANO COMPOSITIONS?

[Rhaul]

I have tried and tried to create piano compositions. But for some reason I can never create a decent piece of music. I get my inspiration from classical music, but I just can't seem to create something that is good. I have more than a decade of piano teachings, but I fear it is my lack of music theory that is holding my back. For all those years, I had music theory, so I know about it, but I would always put more focus on learning a piece of music rather than theory. I'm beginning to regret that. I have had to make a few short compositions for a music class in college (I'm a music minor), and they turned out really well and I came up with them really quickly. But, they were meant to be simple pieces for beginner students to learn and play. I can easily make simple pieces, but I would like to make pieces that are harder and some that I could make lyrics to. I was wondering if anyone could give me help/advice with this problem. Should I in depth study theory first or anything else? Should I just get back in front of the piano and work within certain scales until I like something?