While writing the script for The Love Witch, Anna Biller had been reading relationship self-help books, and one particular piece of advice that stuck out to her was that if a woman wants to keep a man around, she should love him less than he loves her. She noticed a parallel between this advice and the female characters in classic cinema who love someone to death such as Ellen in Leave Her to Heaven (1945), so she decided to created the character Elaine in the same vein.
Anna Biller said she chose a witch as the protagonist because they are such a powerful, historical trope in terms of women's sexuality that's been handed down through millennia. She added that she bases stories on her own life experiences as a female and then looks for characters and settings that are cinematic, where she can use symbols and imagery to tell a story. The witch is the perfect iconic figure in which to discuss all of those issues.
The location for the house that Elaine moves into is in real life known as the Bair House. It is a famous example of Queen Anne Victorian style architecture, particularly for the horseshoe archway entrance.
One of the streets that Elaine drives down at the beginning of the film is F Street in Eureka, California. The Eureka Theater and St Innocent Orthodox Church can be seen. She stops at the historic Bair-Stokes House in nearby Arcata, California.