Taylor Swift wears a red one-shouldered dress and red lipstick.

Taylor Swift Wrote a Novel Because of a Frightening Summer Experience

Taylor Swift and her family spent summers on the Jersey Shore. After a scary sight, she holed up at the house to write a book

While Taylor Swift’s fans can enjoy her writing through her music, she once delved into longer form when she wrote a novel.

The book has never been published, but Swift has discussed her reasons for writing it. Her family spent summers on the Jersey Shore, and she wrote a book after an experience she had near the water.

Taylor Swift wrote a novel while she was a teenager

Swift grew up in Pennsylvania, but she and her family spend their summers on the Jersey Shore.

“When you say, ‘I spent my summers at the Jersey Shore,’ people always say, ‘Oh, really?’ They think of the TV show,” she told Vogue. “So I just say, ‘A cute little harbor town in New Jersey.’”

They had a home on the water, and Swift spent time watching the local wildlife swim past.

“We lived on this basin where all this magical stuff would happen,” she said. “One time a dolphin swam into our basin. We had this family of otters that would live on our dock at night. We’d turn the light on and you’d see them, you know, hanging out, just being otters.”

Unfortunately, the “magical” basin became an issue for her when they saw a shark. Still, the frightening discovery wasn’t all bad. Swift used her time away from the water to write a book.

“And then one summer, there was a shark that washed up on our dock. I ended up writing a novel that summer because I wouldn’t go in the water,” she said. “I locked myself in the den and wrote a book. When I was fourteen. Because of a shark!”

While rumors have circulated about her plans to publish the book, it is not available for fans to read.