Wednesday Writing Therapy: Humble, Shmumble, Say It Straight

I came across Bob Thurber's article "The Long and Short View of an Old, Unschooled Writer" at Flash Fiction Chronicles. It begins as such:

Over the years I've won a few contests with my "small fictions" and at one time or another I've been called a "master" and a "maestro" of the form, as well as "one of the undiscovered great fiction writers of our time," though that's hardly the case. (Nice people frequently say nice things.) Nonetheless, I've begun work on a Flash Fiction & Micro Fiction Handbook (though I have a novel I must complete first) and eventually hope to share some of the tricks and techniques I've discovered useful when working with ultra-short narrative.

The blog article concludes, as most do, with the author's bio:

Bob Thurber is an old, unschooled writer living in Massachusetts. Though he rarely submits for publication, somehow his work has appeared in more than a hundred venues and received numerous awards and citations, including The Barry Hannah Fiction Prize and the Donald Barthelme Prize for Short Prose.

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More than once, my wife has yelled at me upon reading something I've written about my writing or myself as writer and chastised me for what she calls my "false humility." I told her that it wasn't false at all, that I wanted my accomplishments in writing to be known because I worked hard to achieve them, but I also wanted readers to know that I knew that they didn't define me as a writer, that they didn't really mean anything, even though they did. She assured me that what I describe was indeed false modesty, but I still am not convinced. It's very real, the desire to show people I've made at as a writer in some real, concrete, qualifiable way.

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So, for this Wednesday's Therapy session, in my humble opinion, writers should just flat-out say what it is they are comfortable saying without the attached "not really." It makes perfect sense, at the beginning of an article on flash, to establish one's credentials, as it makes similar sense to promote something (your self or a journal or an MFA program or an award or a press) in the bio.

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Bob might write, "Over the years I'm proud to have won some big contests with my 'small fictions' and at one time or another I've been called a 'master' and a 'maestro' of the form, as well as 'one of the undiscovered great fiction writers of our time.' Today, I hope to share some of the tricks and techniques I've discovered useful when working with ultra-short narrative. I hope they'll work for you as they've worked for me." And, in his bio, we simply need, "Bob Thurber is an old, unschooled writer living in Massachusetts. His work has appeared in more than a hundred venues and received numerous awards and citations, including The Barry Hannah Fiction Prize and the Donald Barthelme Prize for Short Prose."

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My point is a simple one. Flash is no place for wishy-washiness and that carries over to talking about accomplishments in flash in either bios or the opening of articles. If we don't believe the things they are saying about us or that we deserved to be in those publications, then we shouldn't list them. For goodness sakes flash writers of the world, no more either false or real humility. It's time to boast. Open, proudly, without apology. Until one day, one of us shall shout, "I'm a flash writer and I've won the Pulitzer freakin' Prize. And I deserved it. I sure did." And it will be the rest of the world who get to utter, "Not really." :>}