What Writers Can Learn From Taylor Swift’s Songwriting Pens

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that Taylor Swift recently released a new album. By now, you’ll have heard snippets while scrolling if not every single song.

With a new release from the most popular musical artist of our time comes the discourse. There is a lot, and exploring all of it is beyond the scope of this blog post and my sanity. However, there are some talking points that I think are extremely relevant to artists of all stripes and walks of life—writers most definitely included.

An All Too Brief History & Context

The Life of a Showgirl comes hot off the heels of Taylor’s last album, The Tortured Poets Department, and the record-breaking Eras Tour, which was a celebration of Taylor’s many musical “eras” and her incredible songwriting range. Her debut first captured hearts in 2006, so lots of ground to cover!

As expected, she played the songs that made her a household name in the first place. With the tour and her rerecordings of earlier albums injecting those hits into our social media feeds, the best of her best was repeatedly brought to our attention, this time with the added candy coating that is nostalgia.

Then: TTPD. Taylor wrote these songs freshly heartbroken, and she went to dark, deep, and profoundly poetic places in her work. TTPD raised eyebrows at first—the same can be said of every album, it should be noted—but ultimately, it became many Swifties’ favorite.

Now Everybody’s So Punk on the Internet

All Artists Are Multifaceted Like a Mirrorball

And that’s very inconvenient for some people.

Now, I do love putting things in boxes. I love categorizing and labeling and compartmentalizing. I’m a sucker for a personality quiz, too. No one wants to get the bottom of which Disney Princess they are more than I do!

The problem with those boxes is that we can’t stay in them forever. We are complex creatures, and trying to keep ourselves an easy-to-define thing goes from uncomfortable to excruciating fast.

But it’s very good for marketing, and that’s makes that line of thinking so seductive.

I hear this sentiment repeated again and again from my clients during chats and story coaching sessions. No matter how many books these writers have already penned or published, all of them wonder if their writing is too different, too much, too against the grain. If they don’t hit the niche in exactly the right way, will the market reject them? Will longtime readers turn their nose up?

If you’re new to her world, what Taylor’s going through now may look like proof positive your career will be toast if you make shifts in style. Taylor Swift herself has expressed such anxieties in songs like “mirrorball.” Yet she continues to pivot and reinvent herself with every new release, more fearlessly now than ever. She’s a damn good businesswoman, and she knows she has nothing to fear by going through such metamorphoses. For all the talk about TLOAS being disappointing, it’s already broken more than half a dozen records.

The numbers don’t lie. What she’s doing works, and she knows it.

I posit that Taylor has survived every era—and every era’s initial backlash—because she knows what she likes to write and what she’s good at writing. This consistency is the bedrock of her success and staying power, and us writers can learn a lot from her creative philosophies.

The Many Pens of Taylor Swift

At first glance, Taylor’s music does not scream “consistency.” She’s done country, pop, alternative, and indie, and she’s dabbled in many others. The topics she touches on are even more varied—love, betrayal, fate, gender roles, celebrity, tragedy, and so on.

But those aren’t the genres you should be paying attention to when it comes to her writing approach. During her speech accepting the NSAI Songwriter-Artist of the Decade Award, Taylor shared her unique songwriting “genres.”

And I’ve never talked about this publicly before, because, well, it’s dorky. But I also have, in my mind, secretly, established genre categories for lyrics I write. Three of them, to be exact. They are affectionately titled Quill Lyrics, Fountain Pen Lyrics, and Glitter Gel Pen Lyrics.

Each writing instrument is the one she imagines picking up while she’s writing. Quill lyrics are “antiquated” or inspired by classic literature; fountain pen lyrics are “a modern storyline with a poetic twist;” and glitter gel pen lyrics are “carefree” and “bouncy” and “don’t take themselves seriously.”

Fellow Swifties can probably name a few songs from each category off the top of your head. The uninitiated might expect her to stick with one pen per album, but she doesn’t! TLOAS is undeniably glitter-gel-pen-coded, but make no mistake—the quill (“The Fate of Ophelia”) and the fountain pen (“Eldest Daughter”) are represented.

And that’s why I put “genres” in quotes. Genres in books revolve around the content; Taylor’s choice of pen comes from the language used, not the content or the themes. Her constant use of language in those three distinct ways is what connects her albums and attracts her fans. Swifties are there for her lyrics above all else.

There is also something that connects your works across genres and across pen names. If you can figure out what that is and be intentional about applying it and marketing it, the readers who resonate with those elements will follow you anywhere.

Why & How You Need to Find Your “Pens” Like Taylor Swift

I talked about this in a recent class I taught for Danika Bloom’s Author Ever After community, From Trope Love to True Love: Writing the Romances Only You Can Tell. Finding what makes your work yours is essential for sustaining a writing career. If you know what’s consistent about your work, you know what to underscore when you market. Even more importantly, the throughlines in your work are probably what you like to write. Focus on what you like to write, and the writing becomes more enjoyable.

To do this, you’ll need to dive into your past work (scary, I know!) and study. Both finished and unfinished projects have lessons for you to learn about your own tastes and talents. Make a list as you read of what you did well—not just the tropes you nailed, but the literary devices, and whatever else sticks out to you.

Those are your “pens.” They are mighty, and they will serve you well. Taylor Swift knows her pens—the kinds of lyrics she writes best—and this self-knowledge helps her stay perennially popular. She knows what she’s good at, she delivers, and her fans love her for it.

I wish the same for you.

When you’re ready to use those pens to write your best story yet, book me for a story coaching session.

I help writers like you find the beating heart of your story through carving out your character arcs. A couple hours over a video call later, you’ll close your laptop with a renewed passion for your story and a better understanding of what makes it so brilliant.

PS. I wrote this blog post while listening to TLOAS on repeat, of course, so here’s a list of my favorite songs just for funsies: “Elizabeth Taylor,” “Opalite,” “Father Figure,” “Actually Romantic,” “Wood,” “CANCELLED!,” and “Honey.”