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Today, in honor of Friday the 13th, I am posting about my favorite writer, Taylor Swift.
It is no secret to those who know me well that I am an avid fan of Taylor Swift. I admit that when I learned her video for You Belong with Me was filmed in my hometown, I watched it over and over until I recognized the red-brick apartment buildings in the background of a particular scene. I then drove around the adjacent neighborhoods until I spotted the side-by-side houses where Taylor and 'the boy' communicated with handwritten signs from their bedroom windows.
I also admit that after spotting the For Sale sign in the front lawn of one of those houses, I called the realtor and pretended to be interested in buying the house, just so I could take a look inside.
Does this make me crazy? Obsessed? Out of my ever-loving mind?
Not in the least. I love you, Taylor. We were meant to be together.
And I mean that in the most adoring, totally non-stalking kind of way.
Some may say I am jumping on the Taylor Swift bandwagon, but I've loved her ever since she was just the "Cute little girl from Hendersonville who sings that song about Tim McGraw."
That's how a friend of mine used to refer to her, and that comment is what prompted me to buy her first CD.
Taylor's hometown of Hendersonville, Tennessee is the next town over from where I live--Ironically, about 13 miles from my front door. (Thirteeen is Taylor's often-quoted lucky number. It is mine as well.)
I thought it was cool that a Sumner County girl my daughter's age had a CD out, with a song that was actually being played on the radio! Who knew then that she would soon be one of the most recognizeable superstars in the world?
I did. I knew it the first time I listened to her album all the way through.
What sets Taylor Swift apart is her voice. Not her singing voice, which is lovely, but not that much different from a million other girls like her. What is unique about Taylor is her voice as a writer, the voice that is hers alone, that speaks to her listeners in a profound way.
When I listen to a Taylor Swift song, I can tell which songs are a collaboration with other songwriters and which ones she wrote entirely on her own. Her voice is much 'clearer' in the songs she writes by herself. When I first heard the Kelly Pickler song Best Days of Your Life, I remember thinking how much it sounded like a Taylor Swift song. Later, when I Googled it, my suspicions were confirmed. Taylor Swift co-wrote the song with Pickler.
I say all this to simply prove a point: The voice of a good writer is clear and unmistakable. It jumps off the page or the screen or whatever medium from which you absorb it, and it speaks to you directly, in a way you can relate to. It creates a sort of channel between the writer's mind and your own, even if that writer is someone who is long dead. A writer's words are a window into their soul, a form of communication that will survive for as long as there is someone willing to read them.
Taylor Swift is famously candid in the songs she writes. She does not shy away from exposing her emotions through her songs. As a writer, that isn't always easy. But it is essential. If the writer does not feel what he or she is writing, their words will be empty and hollow. The better a writer is at letting herself be vulnerable, the better her writing will be.
Just ask Taylor. She's turned vulnerability into an art form.
And her fans love her for it.
