Erik Deckers, author and humor columnist, joins the Business of Story Podcast to discuss how to improve your writing skills by adding humor, understanding three-act structure, and staying simple. The Business of Story is sponsored by Emma, Convince & Convert, and Oracle. Emma helps marketers everywhere send smart, stylish email newsletters, promotions, and automated campaigns, and help us all rest a little easier knowing our marketing emailing is doing its job. Check out their newest publication at Myemma.com/click. Each day the team at Convince & Convert picks a topic and sends you the three best resources ever created about that topic. It's topical, it's timely, it's useful, so go to definitivedigest.com and subscribe to their email newsletter now. Oracle Marketing Cloud offers an introduction to marketing automation, with tips that marketers need to automate and optimize. In This Episode Why infusing your writing with humor will improve it How to break down comedic theory to make it accessible and useable Why you can absolutely can learn to be funny How stories are more approachable and more memorable with comedy Why some are hesitant to use humor in the workplace, but it is a misplaced fear How to absorb lessons from great fiction writers     Resources Erik Deckers Erik Deckers on Twitter, @edeckers Pro Blog Service Kerouac House Writer-in-Residence Program “The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human” by Jonathan Gottschall Fast Company Magazine hemingwayapp.com "The Hero's Journey," by Joseph Campbell “Your DIY Guide to Crafting and Telling Compelling Brand Stories that Sell,” by Park Howell BusinessofStory.com Park@BusinessOfStory.com Visit http://bit.ly/BizofStory for more insights from your favorite storytellers.