Brett Emerson

Cohost of the @karatetolstoy podcast.

I tell jokes into the Void. Sometimes the Void tells jokes back.

[Brett Emerson @ymarksthespot]

Hey @Christian4Peeps my dad died last week, do you have any tips?

[adam @burgerkrang]

this game sucks lol

[Brett Emerson @ymarksthespot]

@BronnyJamesJr The Nepotime Lakers

[Brett Emerson @ymarksthespot]

@BillSimmons @TheRewatchables @KyleBrandt Some guy made an extraordinary diorama of Steven Seagal getting choked out on a movie set. This video is a masterpiece, and the other videos in this series are even more insane.

https://t.co/9onOQ5GrwP

[Brett Emerson @ymarksthespot]

In honor of the passing of Henry Kissinger, I will also be bombing in secret locations that most Americans will safely ignore.

[Nathan Baugh @nathanbaugh27]

In 4 minutes, Kurt Vonnegut explained stories better than anyone I’ve ever heard.

“The shape of the curve is what matters. Not their origins.”

He plots stories on 2 axes:

X: Time
Y: Good fortune / ill fortune

He goes on to say,

“Somebody gets into trouble, then gets out of it again. People love that story. They never get tired of it.”

Point 1:

Stories have defined patterns.

In Joseph Campbell’s Hero of a Thousand Faces, he makes the case for the Hero’s Journey.

Since then, it’s become the most famous storytelling structure in the world.

Vonnegut argued stories could be divided into 8 shapes.

Each story, he said, fit one of the 8.

Point 2:

Vonnegut says,

“Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — so the reader may see what they're made of.”

To see who your characters really are, you have to make them suffer.

Only then does your audience have someone worth cheering for.

Point 3:

End on a high note.

Vonnegut says, “It’s not accidental that the line ends up higher than where it began. This is encouraging to readers.”

The way a story makes people feel when they finish is how they remember it.

It’s called recency bias.

Lift people up and they will love you.

***

“There are people. There are stories. The people think they shape the stories, but the reverse is often closer to the truth.”

I wrote this with @RobbieCrab. Follow him for lessons on storytelling + fundraising.

And I talk about creative storytelling. Follow @nathanbaugh27 for more like that.

[Joe Pompliano @JoePompliano]

A former NBA employee woke up and chose violence on the league's Facebook page this morning 😳

[Brett Emerson @ymarksthespot]

@BillSimmons @TheRewatchables @ChrisRyan77 Congratulations!

[Jack Cocchiarella 🌹 @JDCocchiarella]

Elon Musk claims to love free speech until the speech upsets Elon Musk.

[Brett Emerson @ymarksthespot]

Welp, @elonmusk continues to behave like he has the world's smallest dick.

https://t.co/t8AeLsWwZt

[Brett Emerson @ymarksthespot]

The set that got me on the Seattle International Comedy Competition, coming next month. #SICC42

https://t.co/CNi9ViK0NP

[Brett Emerson @ymarksthespot]

Show and podcast announcements coming soon. In the meantime, enjoy an #EvilFamilyCircus comic I made a while back. More to come.