Word Docs
by Auscast NetworkAlex, Amy and Sean (aka Dr Alex Vickery-Howe, Dr Amy T Matthews and Dr Sean Williams) are professional writers who also lecture full-time at Flinders University, South Australia. They’ve joined forces to cover topics of interest to new writers in a lively, conversational style that frequently segues to areas far from where they started. If you’ve ever wondered what writers talk about beyond the lecture theatre or festival circuit, here’s your chance to find out. Bios Dr Alex Vickery-Howe is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. In 2008 he made his writing debut with a bilingual, bicultural horror rock musical in Okinawa, Japan, where it opened the Kijimuna Festival (now Ricca Ricca Festival) and played to rave reviews and full houses, before selling out again at the Adelaide OzAsia Festival. He has subsequently written and published works for a number of Australian theatre companies. On screen, Alex has written and directed short films which have played to a variety of international festivals. He holds a PhD from Flinders University, where he specialises in writing internationally for younger audiences. Links: https://www.flinders.edu.au/people/alex.vickeryhowe Dr Amy Matthews is an award-winning novelist who publishes literary fiction under the name Amy T Matthews and historical fiction under the name Tess LeSue. She's published short stories in collections including Best Australian Stories and co-edited three anthologies of short fiction and poetry. Amy is a past chair and current board member of Writers SA and teaches creative writing at Flinders University. Her current research focusses on writing colonial historical fiction and the intersections of gender, race and power in romance. This makes it all sound very serious. It's actually ridiculously fun. Links: https://amytmatthews.com https://www.flinders.edu.au/people/amy.t.matthews https://tesslesue.com Dr Sean Williams is an award-winning, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of forty-nine novels and over one hundred and twenty short stories for adults, young adults and children. As well as his original fiction, he has contributed to shared universes such as Star Wars and Doctor Who, collaborated with authors like Garth Nix, and lived on an Antarctica base in the name of research. His latest novel is Impossible Music, about a young heavy metal guitarist who loses his hearing. He teaches creative writing at Flinders University and writes music under the monicker “theadelaidean”. Links: www.seanwilliams.com https://www.flinders.edu.au/people/sean.williams
Copyright: 2024 Auscast Network
Episodes
“A Bit Like Stalin” (Killing Characters)
34m · PublishedThey always say you should kill your darlings...but have Amy, Alex and Sean taken this too literally? Tune in as the Word Docs discuss all the (fictional) people they've murdered. From mythological creatures to wagon trains, hellish high schools to doppelgängers, it's an intergalactic bloodbath.
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“Before They Were Infamous” (Odd Jobs)
32m · PublishedAmy, Alex and Sean confess to all the jobs they had before becoming writers. From the eternal happy hour of a Sydney call centre, long nights at service stations, and weddings where the guests eat gold, the word docs have been making mischief across a range of industries. We're not afraid to ask the big questions: Has Amy got any free salad? Will Sean realise he's been shanghaied? And when is a blue chair ever white enough?
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"When Technology Meets Hubris" (Failures)
33m · PublishedEveryone fails. No one fails forever. There are many ways to negotiate the gap between, in the arts and in academia. The Word Docs have risen through the ranks themselves, and now devote a large proportion of their life to helping others do the same. As teachers, mentors, positive role models, and occasional drinking buddies, Amy, Alex and Sean are here for you.
Episode 11 - tags
Accidental success
Blackface
Carpe Diem
Commercial flops
Computer crashes
Consultation
Covers
Cruelty to animals
Curses
Drafts
Editors
Fail better
Hindsight
Hubris
Ideal reader
Inertia
Jealousy
KPIs
Laziness
Log lines
Luck
Manuscript assessments
Marketing
Miscasting
Misjudgement
Misrepresentation
Numbers game
One-pagers
Opportunities
Owls
Playing Dice
Preparedness
Process
Public embarrassment
Regret
Sales figures
Self-failure
Selling out
Submissions
Teaching
Timing
Unpublished books
Vicissitudes
Whitewashing
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“The Secret, Part One” (Publishing)
31m · PublishedWhat’s the secret to getting published? Alex, Amy and Sean tell all, or at least as much as they can in thirty minutes.
Episode 10 - tags
acting
advice
awards
bottom drawer stories
bravery
commandments
community
conferences
contests
creative writing programs
deadlines
fear
feedback
flipside
fonts
footnotes
formatting
genres
heartbreak
industry knowledge
long game
marking
mentors
perfectionism
performance writing
PhD
resilience
rules
serendipity
shyness
soundtracks
study
titles
typos
validation
work
Writers of the Future
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"Welcome to the FOMO Food Court" (Acclaim vs Popularity)
31m · PublishedWould you rather win all the awards or make all the money? “Both” is a valid answer, but few writers are so lucky. Sometimes peers and publishers will push you one way or another, when really, all you want to do is be yourself. How have the Word Docs managed this? In a lively conversation spanning everything from pop culture to professorships, Amy, Alex and Sean reveal all.
Episode 9 - tags
Academia
Awards
Bias
Classism
Comic-Con
Comics
Community
Competition
Conventions
Cultural capital
Cultural cringe
Defining success
F-bombs
Genre fiction
Inclusivity
Intellectual laziness
Literary fiction
Parental advice
Participatory culture
Polymaths
Pop culture
Popularity
Power relations
Prejudice
Reading habits
Representation
Sexism
Slang
Supanova
Tortured metaphors
Youth
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“Space Kittens, Attack!” (Heroes & Villains)
32m · PublishedAlex, Amy and Sean take a closer look (see Episode 6) at two of our favourite character types and explore ways to write thrilling new ones. It’s harder than it seems. Maybe it’s okay for good people to be bad sometimes, but would Darth Vader ever pat a puppy? Answers await in the Cubby House/Lair of the Word Docs.
Episode 8 - tags
Acting
Adaptations
Antiheroes
Boring Good
Drafting
First crushes
Goal/Motivation/Conflict
Horror
Kittens
Ownership
Piping shrike
Plotting vs Pantsing
Puppies
Romance
Secondary Characters
Star Wars
Strengths and Weaknesses
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“Meet the Gremlins” (ABC Interview)
29m · PublishedWho are Amy, Alex and Sean? What have they written? How do they juggle teaching and writing? Is it even possible to teach people to write? Why does this podcast exist? One of them swears too much, one makes an unconvincing soldier, one wrote epic D&D poetry as a teenager: by the end of this informal Q&A, you will know who, and much more about your Word Docs hosts.
Episode 7 - tags
ABC
Bad Poetry
Bob Roberts
Children's Book Council Award
Chocolate
Collaboration
Confessions
Coronavirus/COVID-19
Creative Writing
Creative Writing PhD
D&D
Drunk writers
Editing
Elbows
Failure
Fears
Flinders University
Genres
Gremlins
Heroes
Horror
The ideal reader
Ideas
Lockdown
Mentors
Networking
Nostradamus
NSW Premier's Literary Awards
Once Upon A Midnight
Playwriting
Power Rangers
Practice Led Research
Publication
Publishing
The Queen
Romance
Routines
Screenwriting
Secrets of writing
Short Stories
Space Opera
Star Wars
Teaching writing
Teletubbies
Tess LeSue
Thrill Me! anthology
Tom Young
Villains
Vulnerability
YA fiction
Interest plus hours
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Bonus Book Launch Episode
29m · Published“Two out of three Word Docs have books out this month, and so does special guest Lisa Hannett (aka Dr Lisa Bennett). How do you launch a book during lockdown? By asking Amy to interview all three authors and raise a virtual toast to their inevitable success. Happy book birthday, Word Docs!”
Bonus Book Launch Episode - tags
Allen & Unwin
Book Birthday
Book Launch
Currency Press
Her Perilous Mansion
Lisa Bennett
Lisa Hannett
Songs for Dark Seasons
Ticonderoga Publications
Watchlist
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Where’s Harry? (Characters)
35m · PublishedPeople read stories about people, so learning how to write people is an important step on your journey. Whether you steal from real life or create out of whole cloth, whether you prefer heroes to villains, whether you regularly lose control of the characters you have brought into being – the Word Docs are right there with you. Their methods may differ, but one thing is certain: chocolate is likely involved.
Twitter: @TheWordDocs
Instagram: @TheWordDocs
Facebook: The-Word-Docs
Tags - Acting vs writing, Action scenes, Alcohol, Ambiguity, Authorial agency, Backstories, Book chocolate, Borrowing from real life, Capacity for change, Characters, Chocolate, Collaboration, Comfort food, Complexity, Conflict, Context, Creative constraints, Dublin, Evolution, Extras, Forced endings, Franchises, Galley slaves, Heroes, Internal conflict, Intuition, Kids, Killing off characters, Long-haul flights, Meaning of names, Merchandising, Metaphors, Moscato, Mundane details, Name dictionaries, Name dropping, Naming characters, Non-fiction, Obsession, Origins, Outlining, Parenting, Past/present/future thinkers, Past victories, Planning, Podcasts, Protagonists, Psychology, The Queen, Reading, Real people, Rebellious characters, Recurring characters, Relationships, Roll call, Rewriting, Runaway characters, Scale, Secondary characters, Shortlisting, Silent extras, Star Wars, Sugar addicts, Tea, Texture, “Tom the Paper Boy” phenomenon, Too many characters, Tragedy, Villains, Weather, Writing as therapy
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Being Medium (How do you know when you’re a writer?)
36m · PublishedNew writers beware: saying that you are one invites interrogation on the nature of your work, where it has been published, and how much you’re being paid – all difficult questions to answer when you’re starting out. Writers, ultimately, come in many different shapes and sizes. The Word Docs are here to help you find your place in the pantheon, and to guide your dealings with Grandma next time you visit.
Twitter: @TheWordDocs
Instagram: @TheWordDocs
Facebook: The-Word-Docs
Tags - The Act of creation, Agents, Alien ideologies, Audiences, Author copies, Awards, Bad Sex Awards, Baking, Being orphaned, Beta readers, Brag shelves, Bravery, Brutal honesty, Business cards, Cakes, Career paths, Character identification, Characters, Chocolate, Community, Competitiveness, Conferences, Confidence, Conflicting feedback, Consultation, Continuity, Criticism, Critics, Disappointment, Doctor Who, Downturns, Drawer stories, Dreamweavers, Editors, Exposure, Fact vs fiction, Failure vs success, Family, Feedback, Gender-swapping, Genre discrimination, Good news, Gratuitous side projects, Growing the pie, Happiness, Honesty, Hope, The Imagined reader, Imposter syndrome, Inadequacies, Innate genius, Jealous peers, Kids, The Loneliness of success, Luck, Madness, Milestones, Money, Moral arguments, Parents, Parody, The Passionate response, Publishers, Professional vs amateur, Pseudonyms, Public adoration, Punctuation, Qualifications, The Queen, Rated R, Respiratory diseases, Royalties, Self-assessment, Sex scenes, Sense of humour, Sharing the love, Skills, Star Wars, Stalkers, Tall Poppy Syndrome, Taxonomy of writers, Theses, Tribes, Validation, Vampires, Visibility, Wattpad, Werewolves, Withholding, Wordsmiths, Writers’ Associations, Writing for a living, Writer bling
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Word Docs has 66 episodes in total of non- explicit content. Total playtime is 35:30:33. The language of the podcast is English. This podcast has been added on August 24th 2022. It might contain more episodes than the ones shown here. It was last updated on January 1st, 2024 17:40.
