This project is more of an undertaking than I imagined it would be, when I came up with idea about a month ago. But it’s fun, so I’m sticking to it! So, here are the 40th thru the 31st best Taylor Swift songs for fiction writers. Let’s do this!

Say you’ll remember me

Standing in a nice dress

Staring at the sunset, babe

Red lips and rosy cheeks

Say you’ll see me again

Even if it’s just pretend

“Wildest Dreams” uses vivid imagery to combine romance and sensuality. On the surface, its narration is pleading, needy even. But dig deeper, and it seems like Taylor is shedding her “good girl” image and embracing her tryst with a “bad boy.” I love how she paints a picture through describing details like the sunset or the clothes he left behind in her room. And I think this song is a great example of a character arc. She’s shedding the belief that she must always make good choices.

Do I throw out everything we built or keep it?

I’m getting tired even for a phoenix

Always risin’ from the ashes

Mendin’ all her gashes

You might just have dealt the final blow

Nylon Magazine calls “You’re Losing Me” Swift’s most devastating breakup song, and that’s saying a lot, since devastating breakup songs are Swift’s superpower. If you want an example of quiet desperation teemed with a sense of futility, look no further than “You’re Losing Me.” Plus, I love the phoenix reference–not the first time she implies that she’s come back to life multiple times.

Big city, wrong choices

We had one thing going on

I swear that it was something

‘Cause I don’t remember who I was before you

Painted all my nights

A color I’ve searched for since

“Question” has a dream-like quality, even though there’s no mention of dreaming. Instead, she’s up late (as the song is from Midnights…), trying to figure out a confusing breakup. She’s posing the questions to her ex, while using lots of symbols and metaphors. My favorite is her use of color, which she does in multiple songs. “You painted all my nights a color I’ve searched for since…”

A string that pulled me

Out of all the wrong arms right into that dive bar

Something wrapped all of my past mistakes in barbed wire

Chains around my demons, wool to brave the seasons

One single thread of gold tied me to you

“Invisible String” is a happy song where Swift frames her previous mistakes in relationships as fortunate and necessary, because they lead her to a happy and healthy relationship. It’s based off an idea from a Chinese myth, where there’s a string that ties together a man and woman who are destined to be together. The entire song is a metaphor, using vivid imagery and again, color references. It’s like the perfect happily-ever-after epilogue to a love story.

Windows swung right open, autumn air

Jacket ’round my shoulders is yours

We bless the rains on Cornelia Street

Memorize the creaks in the floor

Apparently, there’s major controversy over who “Cornelia Street” is about. Joe Alwyn? Matty Healy? Karlie Kloss?  For me, it doesn’t matter. This song captures the heady sugar rush of first falling in love, plus the insecurity, the fear of losing your new relationship. The couple in this song has the type of intimacy that you dream about, where you get lost in the other person.

And my cheeks are growing tired

From turning red and faking smiles

Are we only biding time ’til I lose your attention?

And someone else lights up the room?

People love an ingenue

Any writing instructor worth their salt will insist that to write good fiction, you must first tell the truth. That is, good authors aren’t afraid of making themselves vulnerable, of putting their fears on the page for the world to see. “Nothing New” is startling in how vulnerable Swift makes herself. I expect there’s nothing fictional about this song, but it’s a great reminder of how to be brave in your writing.

You left your typewriter at my apartment

Straight from the Tortured Poets Department

I think some things I never say

Like, “Who uses typewriters anyway?”

But you’re in self-sabotage mode

Throwing spikes down on the road

But I’ve seen this episode and still loved the show

Who else decodes you?

It’s easy to assume that “Tortured Poets Department” is about a new relationship, but it’s actually about thrill and drama between two angsty musicians. The genius stems from Swift’s self-awareness, recognizing that they aren’t “tortured poets,” but rather “modern idiots.” She sings about a fling that’s also overly intense–like, he’ll end his life if she leaves. But that’s okay, because he jokingly slipped a ring on her finger, and her heart was exploding! Swift captures the denial and addictiveness of being in a dysfunctional relationship.

No one wanted to play with me as a little kid

So I’ve been scheming like a criminal ever since

To make them love me and make it seem effortless

This this the first time I’ve felt the need to confess

And I swear

I’m only cryptic and Machiavellian ’cause I care

“Mastermind” is like a super-villain origin story. Or, the surprise confession by a character who was hiding the fact that they’re the antagonist. Interesting that this song shares a similar theme with other songs on the Midnights album, like “Antihero.”

But we were something, don’t you think so?

Roaring 20s, tossing pennies in the pool

And if my wishes came true

It would’ve been you

In my defense, I have none

For never leaving well enough alone

But it would’ve been fun

If you would’ve been the one

“The 1” is, like many of Swift’s songs, about a relationship that ended a while ago. It’s a bittersweet reflection of what could have been, about the one who got away. I like the “roaring twenties” phrase, which sounds like she should be talking about the 1920s, but really must be a reference to being in your twenties. And how “tossing pennies in the pool,” leads to “if my wishes came true,” because who hasn’t thrown a penny in a fountain and made a wish? It’s a pretty song, nostalgic. 

We gather stones, never knowing what they’ll mean

Some to throw, some to make a diamond ring

You know I didn’t want to have to haunt you

But what a ghostly scene

You wear the same jewels that I gave you

As you bury me

In “My Tears Ricochet,” Swift sings about betrayal. It’s a haunting song that blends desperation with resignation through showing rather than telling. She’s offering her surrender, and uses death metaphors to convey her feelings of betrayal, as she realizes she never deserved such treatment. The coolest part is how she suggests that her betrayer will carry this burden of guilt forever, that he harms himself whenever he harms her or anyone he loves. So, both their tears will metaphorically ricochet back and forth, and Taylor’s warning him of the impact.

Hopefully it won’t be another whole month before I post songs 30-21. But in the meantime, if you’re getting anxious, make sure to read “Love and Poetry,” a short story written while reading Taylor Swift. It’s free to download, and you don’t even have to subscribe to my newsletter!

The post SWIFTATURE – TOP 50 TAYLOR SWIFT SONGS FOR FICTION WRITERS RANKED: 40 – 31 first appeared on LaurelLit.com.

The post SWIFTATURE – TOP 50 TAYLOR SWIFT SONGS FOR FICTION WRITERS RANKED: 40 – 31 appeared first on LaurelLit.com.