Taylor Swift wrote “august” first among the three Folklore tracks about the teenage love triangle.
The three connected songs are “august,” “cardigan,” and “betty.” Swift wrote them to explore the same fictional relationship from different perspectives and at different points in the characters’ lives. “august” was the first of the trio she wrote.
The song is narrated by an unnamed young woman who has a summer romance with James. “cardigan” centers on Betty, while “betty” is narrated by James. The three tracks therefore function as separate pieces of one imagined story rather than a single linear song.
The narrator of “august” is not officially given a name in the lyrics. Swift said she privately thought of the character as Augusta or Augustine, but those names are not the song’s title or a formal character credit. That distinction is why “august” is the precise answer to the writing-order question.