Sincerity

One of the first things a potential writer is taught is to lend sincerity to their work. This rule goes double for those hoping to peruse personal essays. Without a sincere touch the essays become less personal and at that point you should just write fiction.

As someone who is attempting to entice and entertain readers with candid blogs, snap shots of my true thoughts I’m apprehensive to admit I struggle with my own sincerity. This thought has been creeping in the back of my mind now for sometime. It came to the forefront while making our newest video series “Are Ghosts Real?”. The premise is I’m looking to assemble a team to answer the title’s question. The rub being I don’t believe in ghosts, I want to but most of the time I feel silly asking a spirit to speak cryptid responses into a microphone. I’m worried my disbelieve in wayward souls cursed to walk the Earth forever will taint the series. I’m equally desperate to not come off as the type of person who believes wholesale in the premise. Rock meet hard place, meet small internet ghost hunting show I’m probably overthinking.

This is all compounded by the discovery of the music artist Hobo Johnson. His songs combine rap and spoken word poetry to great effect. His honesty seems to lace every line to the point I’ve heard him called “soft”’for expressing himself in such a way. To me his truths about unrequited love and unrealistic expectations of live and success resonate. I wonder if I’ll ever be capable of being so candid in my writings or videos? Is his success correlated to his sincerity? Will mine be? Perhaps this crisis of confidence will be cured by an apparition  whispering calming platitudes into a microphone. Assuring me I’ll be okay and proving their existence simultaneously. For now I’ll continue to write these blogs and hope people connect enough to continue reading.

Also it has been pointed out to me that even if a ghost decided to calm my nerves with a corporeal pep talk most people wouldn’t think it was sincere. Instead I’d be relegated to the pile of hacks trying to make a quick buck off of true believers. An imposter with the reputation to match my insecurities.

Watch Are Ghosts Real? on October 29th on Youtube

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