To expound... Even just the basics of classical composing techniquez can help.

Or you can just throw in a cmshot and magically a whole new world of tonal exploration is open to yewww

Yeah I didn't think of it, but I do tend to let the bass do the walking. which is usual the *root note, or wherever, in my songs. The bass note is just dancing around the root of the chords usually.

I can go either way on the "leave it alone for a while" thing. Sometimes I just power through, and write anything, with the knowledge that I can always reload the song.

It's a game. So be a child and play. Enjoy it. I you're stucked, leave it and start something new as mentioned. It doesn't matter, if some of that loops compose a whole track. Don't take it too seriously.

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My experienced advice: Save the loop, leave it alone for a while and start something new. You may come back to it months or years later or you may not. I've got plenty of loops that have never seen the light of day and some still may one day... That's not to say you haven't learnt something or been inspired somehow by creating that loop - just because the loop isn't a finish track yet doesn't mean it was a waste of time. Not everything you create has to become a released track.

constructive

edit:

also filters

one strategy i tried with great results was to start an entirely new section before the loop. then, try to work on ways to build a bridge from that section to the loop. sometimes an abrupt change is a really cool way to take things in an unexpected new direction

Don't try to have the perfect loop with too many structure.
If you find the perfect loop, and I think you find it many times, you won't be able to move from this perfect one.

So make a simple loop with not too many stuff, go to the next one, the next one, again and again. Then try to solve moving previous to the next. There will be trash loop, and you will not use them, no problem.
Stop working only on "one loop", you overthink...

I've started putting some blank bars at the end of the loop, so that I can imagine what it leads into instead of getting used to it repeating.

Thanks everyone! That's been really good and helpful advice so far!

Minimal tech advice: Embrace it. Don't be afraid of making slowly evolving loop based music. Slightly iterate on each repetition. Remove/add/mutate an element one note at a time.

Prog advice: Smash cut to a completely different key, time signature, tempo, or all of the above. Even to something that sounds like it should be a totally different song. Then, figure out how you would go about getting back to the original loop, or a variation thereof. I do this all the time in my prog stuff and it helps me every time.

Other: Eno's Oblique Strategies are good for times like this:
http://stoney.sb.org/eno/oblique.html
Often it gives seemingly unrelated advice but I've always been able to take something from it.

This is also good advice!

That's pretty creative!

Learn music composition

Make up a few verses of goofy lyrics, add a new tune to the second verse and then forget all the lyrics. Maybe that will mix it up a bit.

Make another loop with  the same sounds. Or, how about this: don't loop it. Construct each new pattern by ear. Don't copy/paste any patterns. And don't sit there listening to it forever.