“Pages of shit”: Courtney Love’s essential writing advice
Courtney Love often provokes a similar reaction to Marmite — the polarising British breakfast spread. Love her or hate her, there’s no denying the Hole frontwoman’s talent when it comes to penning a classic. Love had already put the feelers out on 1991’s Pretty on the Inside, with its corrosive opener ‘Teenage Whore’ laying the groundwork for what was to come. The artist had a vision for the album from the outset, writing to Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth in a bid to convince her to produce the record. It worked.
But on 1994’s pièce de résistance Live Through This, Love, with Hole, really honed her craft. Released during a period of increased scrutiny on her personal life and attempts to sabotage her public image, Love took back control, penning defiant, visceral rock songs like ‘Violet’. In ‘Asking For It’, she recalls crowd surfing at an early Hole show and the crowd objectifying her, tearing her clothes. She takes back ownership of her body.
Alternatively, character studies steeped in horror like ‘Jennifer’s Body’, which went on to inspire the 2009 film of the same name. In complete contrast, she can lay bare her insecurities on ‘Doll Parts’, which initially stemmed from a poem she wrote to Kurt Cobain.
She enunciates the realities of motherhood and the public’s perception of her ability to care for her daughter on ‘I Think That I Would Die’ Love then tried her hand at pop-rock, crafting more radio-friendly fair on the glossy, commercially successful Celebrity Skin (1998), with its title track, and ‘Malibu’ becoming smash hits along with the tender love song ‘Heaven Tonight’, an ode to her daughter Frances Bean Cobain.
But Love acknowledges that she hasn’t always coasted along during the writing process: “I’ve had some successes, and I’ve had some failures, and failure is really hard to overcome.” In a Q&A with Interview Magazine, alternative pop icon and former touring partner Lana Del Rey asked Love what inspires her to keep writing. She described her methods as “super plebeian”.
Adding, “You’ve got to stay weird, and you’ve gotta exercise. If you’re an addict or something—which I am—you’ve gotta pray. And then you’ve gotta sit down and write 20 longhand pages. This has to be small writing, the smaller the better. You write pages of shit. It doesn’t matter what you write. It’s your way of releasing something creative in your life every morning. It’s so dumb, but it helps. You’ve gotta feel safe to fail.”
Love’s last full-length album was 2010’s Hole revival Nobody’s Daughter, and a trio of television-ready tracks, including ‘Walk Out on Me’ and a cover of ‘Take Me to the River’ in 2015 for Empire, and ‘Mother’ for 2020 horror film The Turning. But the artist hasn’t said no to a potential Hole reunion or fifth record, having reunited onstage with bassist Melissa Auf der Maur in June this year. In the meantime, she has been penning a highly-anticipated memoir, The Girl With The Most Cake, which is yet to be released.
