Taylor Swift wrote “august” first among the three Folklore songs in the love-triangle storyline.
The related songs are “cardigan,” “august,” and “betty.” Swift began with “august,” exploring the perspective of a girl in an undefined relationship with James, who was already connected to Betty. The other songs later expanded the same fictional situation through different narrators and moments in the story.
This writing order is different from the album’s track order and from the order in which listeners may discover the songs. “cardigan” opens Folklore, while “august” appears later and “betty” is the fourteenth track. Because “cardigan” is the lead single and album opener, it is sometimes mistakenly assumed to have been written first.