The number of syllables does not always match the notes exactly. Which options are there to handles this? If there is one syllable too many you may replace a quarter note with two eighths or add an upbeat note at the beginning, if there is one syllable too few you may insert a pause. You could also provide for prolonging a syllable by duplicating or multiplicating it like "ayayay". I try to avoid the latter method preferably leaving decisions like that to the composer and/or singer. It's often used, of course. I do it myself in "choking": "choking our lu-huv (love)". And I had it in mind for "make me real": "make me ree-heel", but then decided to leave the last tune to the guitar in the first verse and to the listener's imagination in the second.
Whereas there are ways to match the tune with varying numbers of syllables matching the lyrics with the intonation of a tune can bear quite a challenge. Adding an upbeat note at the beginning of a line is a viable method to shift the stress from the second syllable to the first. If there is no other way you might shift the stress to a syllable that is not normally stressed. I tried this with "organizing parades celebrating your might" in "giants fall", putting the stress on the third syllable. This would have been a kind of emergency measure. Its main disadvantage being that the listener will focus his attention on this part because it stands out due to its strange intonation - and normally it's not a part you meant to focus on. Therefore, I was quite happy when I came up with a simple solution with the correct intonation: "holding parades celebrating your might". Often, when you cannot get the intonation right the only solution is rewriting the lyrics. I actually gave up on two projects with Bernd Oettinger because I simply could not come up with sentences that would match the intonation of his melodies (songs that were originally sung in German).
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