Taylor Swift Reveals Award-Winning Songwriting Secrets

Posted by Leigh Durbin on 07/23/2010
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Taylor Swift may be known for her curly blonde hair, mesmerizing performances and sparkly dresses, but what really sets her apart from the crowd is her songwriting.
 
Swift wrote all of the songs on her forthcoming album, Speak Now, which will be released in October. This is no surprise considering that she wrote her debut hit, “Tim McGraw,” before she was 17. Swift has often spoken about the personal aspect of her music and recently offered insight on her songwriting methods during her web chat with fans earlier this week.
 
"My advice to first-time songwriters would be you know the person you are writing the songs about," Swift said. "First know that. Then write a letter to them, what you would say if you could. That's why I listen to music. It says how I feel better than I could. And it says what I wished I had said when that moment was there. So I would say be as direct as you possibly can. If you need to dial it back later, then, I guess, do that -- but for me, the more details the better."
 
Swift said that she writes when she feels inspired. Some of her best ideas have struck in the middle of the night or while she was traveling. When no one is around to work with, she writes and finalizes her songs by herself.
 
Swift keeps the details of her personal life private on the red carpet, but she really opens up in her music.
 
"The more it seems like a journal entry the better. The more it seems like an open letter the better," Swift said. "The more true and honest and real it gets the better. Where you're naming the places you went and the time it happened and all the things about a relationship."
 
Swift said that she learned the importance of detail from one of her favorite movies.
 
“Richard Curtis is one of my favorite writers,” Swift said. “And he's the guy behind Love Actually, which is my favorite movie. I think the best thing about Richard Curtis' writing is that when he plays out these relationships in these movies, it's not just a boy and a girl fall in love and all that. It's all these inside little mementos of each other. Like the one relationship in Love Actually, they had an inside joke of how she loves a Joni Mitchell album and then there's the little storyline where all the little jokes that play out. So if you can, in your songwriting, be as detailed as possible. Because for people to relate to it, they may not have the same details in their relationships that you have in yours but they can relate in that they had these little details of the relationships. The more honesty the better, the more details the better, the more direct the better."
 
Swift turns to her mother and select trusted others to approve her songs. Swift said it is just as important to hear if they do not like a song as it is to hear that they enjoyed it. Swift also opened about which songs are included on her albums.
 
"It has to be personal when I'm writing them, but it can't be personal when I'm picking them. It can't be like, 'But no, that one is special to me,'" Swift said, pretending to whine. "To a certain extent it is 'May the best song win.' I don't get my feelings hurt when it comes to picking which song makes the record and which one doesn't."
 
The first single from Speak Now, “Mine,” will be released in mid-August.