Rachel Krantz on Using the Tools of Immersion Journalism in Her Own Life

Welcome to I’m a Writer But, where two writers-and talk to other writers-and about their work, their lives, their other work, the stuff that takes up any free time they have, all the stuff they’re not able to get to, and the ways in which any of us get anything done. Plus: book recommendations, bad jokes, okay jokes, despair, joy, and anything else we’ve got going on that week. Hosted by Lindsay Hunter and Alex Higley.

*

From the episode:

I didn’t exactly know I was going to write about it, but the idea of writing about it, in book form anyway, began to become an elaborate coping mechanism. An idea that all the jealousy I was experiencing, and eventually lots of gaslighting and emotional abuse, was for a greater purpose. It was a way of imagining I had this imaginary audience as witness. The motivations fed each other symbiotically.

As an immersion journalist, I was like, this is a fantastic, amazing journey I’m on, it’s very complex, it’s very confusing. In some ways I was coming into my queerness and exploring all these different ways people are in non-monogamous relationships; at the same time I was getting increasingly mired and anxious and addicted to weed, and overexercising, and getting out of control. I wasn’t sure I was going to write about it, but when an agent approached me and said, “You should write a book about this,” I started putting more intention behind it. 

________________________

Rachel Krantz is a journalist and one of the founding editors of Bustle, where she served as senior features editor for three years. Her work has been featured on NPR, The Guardian, Vox, Vice, and many other outlets. She’s the recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Radio Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award, and the Peabody Award for her work as an investigative reporter with YR Media. Open is her first book.