With the end of the North American leg of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, how are we going to get our Taylor Swift fix? For fans looking for a way to connect with the award-winning artist on a deeper level, you can read some of her favorite books of all time. Reading the same books Taylor enjoys, you can see where she gets her inspiration in her songwriting.
Swift’s Songwriting Process, Detailed
Last year, Swift explained her songwriting process at the Nashville Songwriter Awards. She said that she has three genres of lyrics: Quill Lyrics, Fountain Pen Lyrics, and Glitter Gel Pen Lyrics. “I categorize certain songs of mine in the ‘Quill’ style if the words and phrasings are antiquated if I was inspired to write it after reading Charlotte Brontë or after watching a movie where everyone is wearing poet shirts and corsets,” Swift said. “If my lyrics sound like a letter written by Emily Dickinson’s great grandmother while sewing a lace curtain, that’s me writing in the Quill genre.” She listed everymore‘s “ivy” as a Quill lyric.
Swift considers most of her lyrics to be “Fountain Pen style,” as they follow a modern storyline “with a poetic twist.” For example, taking a common phrase and flipping its meaning. “Trying to paint a vivid picture of a situation, down to the chipped paint on the door frame and the incense dust on the vinyl shelf,” she said. “Placing yourself and whoever is listening right there in the room where it all happened. The love, the loss, everything. The songs I categorize in this style sound like confessions scribbled and sealed in an envelope, but too brutally honest to ever send.”
Finally, “Glitter Gel Pen” songs are her carefree pop songs, like the ones featured on her 1989 album. Swift shared that these songs aren’t meant to be taken seriously. “Glitter Gel Pen lyrics are the drunk girl at the party who tells you that you look like an angel in the bathroom. It’s what we need every once in a while in these fraught times in which we live.”
Take a look below at four of Taylor Swift’s favorite books and how they may connect to her songwriting style. For the full list of Taylor’s 13 favorites, head to Ultimate Book List.
