Taylor Swift wrote “august” first among the three Folklore songs forming the James-Betty story.
The trilogy also includes “cardigan” and “betty,” but “august” was the first of those connected songs Swift wrote. Its narrator is a girl involved in an undefined summer relationship with James, who is already connected to Betty. The three tracks were designed as linked fictional perspectives rather than as a chronological release of three unrelated songs.
The writing order is easy to overlook because all three songs appeared together on Folklore and listeners often discuss them as a set. Swift’s songwriting process for “august” began after Jack Antonoff created the instrumental; she then wrote the lyrics intuitively. The song’s first-written status helps explain why it became a foundation for the narrative that later expanded through Betty’s and James’s viewpoints.