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 can the boys offer? How do you convert a curriculum from face-to-face Socratic teaching to the chat rooms and vids of the interwebs? What are the pitfalls? And what are the unexpected benefits? Pop a cork on your wine of choice and get ready for some truth bombs from three dedicated educators in the age of Zoom.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As Phillipa prepares to start over and protect her daughter from a fate similar to her own, everyone around her appears to have different ideas.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 everything. What other writers do you know who can get kidnapped by pirates on their way to a writing gig? Like, for real. Not in their imaginations. And what other academics do you know who are willing to dish the dirt on what it's really like to be a working writer? Fine, lots of them. But how many of them also make ambient music? One. Sean. Well done, Sean. He's reason enough to listen to this podcast - especially if you're smart enough to listen all the way to the end.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The tension deepens between Phillipa and Hugh and neither vodka or meditation prove to be particularly successful at blocking out the past.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.

Unexpected news finds Phillipa leaning on Kat’s born-again Buddhist lodger, Marcus.  Rayleen and the Almighty Creator prey upon Kat.  And Hugh seeks a different sort of spiritual guidance.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

South Australian Playwrights Theatre presents:

THE MIDDLE WAY. 

by Lucy Combe

Meet SUV driving, Finnish Spitz owning, mother of twins, Phillipa. Daughter, Kat’s mental health requires intensive monitoring, husband Hugh’s ego needs constant stroking and she is forever reminded of her estranged Evangelical mother, Rayleen. Along comes Marcus, a devout born-again Buddhist, who brings with him the promise of new beginnings – if only her past would stop getting in the way.

The Middle Way explores the identities we create for ourselves and those put upon us; how the events of the past ricochet for years to come and the eternal pull of spiritual practices. The stage play launched to critical acclaim in 2019, is published through Australian Plays and is now being retold as an audio series over four parts.

South Australian Playwrights Theatre is committed to producing original stories over a range of mediums, and is thrilled to be producing
The Middle Way as its next audio instalment. So, sit back or multitask and enjoy the ride!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. Alex, meanwhile, is threatening to go pick someone up so he can get involved. Be warned.) There's grammar talk, abject horror and the search for meaning, and the eternal question: how do you pronounce the word 'wolf'?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 finding ourselves arguing over at the pub), and a whole range of random logic holes in films that bear no resemblance to Notting Hill at all. This is peak Word Docs, where there's madness in the method, and we regret everything.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Amy kicks off with a rant about people who want to 'break the mould' of genre fiction, instead of just doing it bloody well, which leads us down the rabbit hole of defining genres, arguing about the rules (knowing the rules; bending the rules; breaking the rules; stop breaking the bloody rules!), following formulas, smashing formulas, value adding and (because it's us) comparing genres to pizza. What other podcast about writing can be so smart and so dumb all at the same time? Guaranteed to be 80% cheeky and 100% 30 minutes long. (This may be our best episode yet, so don't miss it. It's probably all downhill from here.)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.