Taylor Swift wrote “august” first among the three Folklore songs forming the James-Betty love triangle.
The three connected tracks are “august,” “Cardigan,” and “Betty.” They present different perspectives on a fictional teenage relationship: “august” follows the unnamed summer-romance narrator, “Cardigan” reflects Betty’s viewpoint, and “Betty” is told from James’s perspective.
Swift developed the broader story through imagined characters rather than treating the songs as direct autobiographical accounts. The first song she wrote for this trilogy was “august,” which helped establish the emotional and narrative framework later explored in the other tracks.
A common mix-up is identifying “Cardigan” as the starting point because it was the album’s lead single. Its single status is separate from the order in which Swift wrote the connected songs. “August” was written first, even though “Cardigan” received the earliest major single promotion.