Word Docs

We’re lifting the boot and unpacking our process. This week, Amy leads a discussion on the form and purpose of exegetical writing as Sean snores audibly in the corner (not for the first time) and Alex rails against ever discussing his own work. What is an exegesis? Why is it important? Who is it for? The Word Docs pray the Deans of Research are not listening as they quarry this most sacred pillar...

Writers are cruel creatures. This week, the Word Docs discuss all the occasions when they’ve felt let down, horribly surprised, or otherwise manipulated by authors, playwrights and screenwriters. Alex is upset by animal cruelty, Amy by failed romance, and Sean by lions that aren’t really lions. When the contract between reader and creator is broken, Amy has been known to throw a book across the ro...

They're baaaaaaaack! The Word Docs have spent the last couple of years recording random episodes and failing to release them. But today is the dawn of a new age. Otherwise known as 2023. Alex stops polishing his awards, Amy crawls out of the writing cave, and Sean returns from a galaxy far, far away (as in, Ireland) and the 'quite interesting' episodes have been collected into a 'transitional' sea...

‘Fool Me Twice’ is a podcast about diamonds. Jules and Zara were approached by a woman in Hong Kong who owns a diamond business, and had an incredibly compelling story to tell, full of twists and turns. Hearing her story, Zara became interested in diamonds themselves, and started doing some digging. This podcast follows the story of that scam, and attempts to unravel some of the shadie...

The Word Docs have returned! Out of the classroom and back at the mics, Amy, Alex and Sean are dissecting the fertile minds of director Lisa Harper Campbell and actor Gianluca Noble who have brought Alex’s latest play  Watchlist  to the stage. How do talented people turn scribbles on a page into a live event? Who does it belong to once the author has ‘died’ and the dire...

The Word Docs bare their bruised egos this week and attempt to find a balming (is that a word?) salve. Alex drags Sean and Amy into the cobwebby corners of their psyches, seeking to learn whether ego is a help or a hindrance in an artist's life. This week we'll learn about the book that broke Sean; traverse the Dark Place and the Vague Place; confront mediocrity; and try to ignore the fact that Al...

Before you write your magnum opus – or perhaps during – a visit to a distant shore to get you in the mood and help you find the perfect setting for your novel is not a bad idea. Likewise, visiting the scene of your favourite work can bring you deeper into an author’s mindset. This week, the Word Docs share their tales of pilgrimages. From the ice flats of Antarctica to the oppres...

The Word Docs are stirring from their slumber and weaving their magic – both the whimsical technicolour kind and the wicked dystopian kind – on a raw 2021. How do writers recharge after an insane year? Is downtime part of the process? What do these people do when they're not abusing stationary? You may think the Word Docs simply fold up neatly into cupboards, but no...some of us jog! S...

Well, that's it for the grand old dystopian wonderland of 2020. Bring on the New Year! This week, the Word Docs are reflecting on the year that's been: deadlines missed and goals hit, unexpected delights and inevitable tipsiness, real estate bought, sold and fantasised about, and the fact that Amy never delivered on the promised scones. We're making plans for 2021 and even 2022: New bathrooms! Sec...

This week we have a full pod of doctors and a bonus Word Dog, as the Word Docs are joined by playwrights Piri Eddy and Peter Beaglehole, and Piri's dog Murphy. We explore the experience of writing and producing plays, the life affirming joys of working with other humans, and the reasons why sometimes you just have to go a little nuts. There are power tools and secret ninjas, and Alex gets approxim...

From big structural issues to hooks and semicolons, and everything in-between ... the Word Docs are all over it. Together, Amy, Sean and Alex have edited a lot and been edited even more. In this episode the docs become surgeons, unpacking the editorial process in forensic detail.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See omnystudio.com/listener fo...

This week, our intrepid Word Docs dig down into the relationship between writers and their words. Can you separate the fiction on the page from the reality of its wider context? Which matters more, the message of the author or the impact of the work? And what happens when your favourite creator turns out to be an appalling human? Join Amy T. Matthews, Sean Williams and a particularly hyper Alex Vi...

There’s no getting around the fact that we live in strange and difficult times, from a global pandemic to a ‘Leader of the Free World’ who refuses to concede defeat ––  but, never fear, the Word Docs are here to provide their remedies! Join Amy, Alex and Sean as they unpack the ups and downs of creating new work and telling new stories in the midst of isolation a...

In this episode, we compare submitting your work to setting up a profile on Tinder. How far can we take this metaphor? Too far. Much, much too far. As a Tinder virgin (metaphorically speaking), Alex is grilling the pros (not a metaphor, although they do get paid for it) on how to submit your work to agents and publishers.  How do you find them? How do you talk to them? When are you being too...

This week the Word Docs follow Alice down the rabbit hole and take the academy by the tassels to hash out research outcomes, research expectations and non-traditional research outputs. What  is  research? How do you do it? Are creative works really so different from scholarly articles? The plucky trio will offer some answers, with only occasional segues into – among other things &n...

It’s that special time of year again, and to celebrate Word Docs lifts the veil on their inability to stick to the subject, keep it clean, or avoid the giggles. This adults-only episode collects unused excerpts from nine months of broadcasting in the hope of bringing good cheer or at least the occasional shake of the head to all our listeners. There may even be a word or two about writing. H...

In this episode we're talking about how we juggle multiple projects, completely unaided by clones (lazy bastards). This week the Word Docs cram the muse back in her box and adopt a pragmatic approach to this juggling thing. Anti-romantic to the core, we tackle how to be multiple people at once, how to be one person on multiple projects, how to have a life, and whether balance is possible. Just ign...

They almost succeed. Very, very nearly. This week, Amy, Sean and the other guy do their best to discuss heroes...and end up discussing fairy tales and gender binaries, romantic chemistry and cinema demographics, and anything else that skirts around the issue. Being heroic is hard. Writing heroic characters ain’t a picnic either. Who were the heroes of times gone by? What makes a he...

Another week, another rant. Place your bets as Amy and Alex face off on a range of issues they more or less politely agree on...while Sean towers with arms folded like a regal Tina Turner. From theme to ideology to politics to rebellion, the Word Docs aren’t afraid to go where Trump and Twitter trolls have gone before. It’s all impressively coherent until Alex forgets to host. Do you c...

This week the Docs are exploring some of their guilty reading pleasures, although as usual they don't stick to the topic and other guilts are exposed, not least of them someone's fantasies about Kevin Bacon's shorts. Prepare for the over-caffeinated enthusiasm, as we learn who was the bane of their primary school librarians, who has a sadistic streak, and who is a secret sports buff. High art/ low...

COVID-19 threw us headlong into online teaching at a moment's notice, requiring flexibility, agility and the fleet-footedness of a moscato-soaked gazelle. Well, it threw Alex and Sean into online teaching and moscato. Amy was on study leave. Now as Semester Two hits, Amy's joining them on the frontlines, but swapping out the moscato for a nice Clare riesling or a McLaren Vale grenache. What tips c...

What have we been doing this year? Other than teaching through lockdown, eating too much chocolate, drinking moscato, and yapping away on this podcast... In this episode we get to catch up on the Word Docs' latest projects, which involve a theatre/film project which is not a porno (but does feature a dominatrix), music made in the Hall of Possibility, and more pseudonyms for the woman who has ever...

In which Sean comes down from the mount, stomps out the burning bush and hands down the ten (and a half - don't forget the half) commandments of writing. After a healthy dose of heckling, his disciples agree they're pretty good. No 'thou shalt not covet thy neighbours ass' kind of good, but 'don't be a dick' is definitely a keeper.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See omn...

Meet the man who ruined Alex's milk and cookies by writing a story so abjectly disgusting that it laid waste to bedtime. This week we're kicking off our 'Writers and their Partners' series, talking to Amy's partner, the Horror writer Jonny Zweck. (Sean refuses to participate in this misguided series next, even though it's patently his turn, and his partner is also a doc who writes the words....

It's a Showdown! Amy and Sean are going head to head over to Richard Curtis's film Notting Hill , with Alex caught in the middle. Except Alex is too obstreperous to stay above the fray, and Amy and Sean keep agreeing on everything. We can't even argue properly. This week we're looking at character, motivation, embedded sexisms and other isms in Notting Hill (a film from the Dark Ages that we keep...