I’ve always wondered at the nature of ‘viral’ content. Is it random? Is it a mathematical equation?

Well, yesterday, after a bizarre / tragic / funny situation on a Melbourne tram on the way to a hospital appointment, I recorded a reel for instagram because the dialogue was so funny I just had to share it.

I was remembering the days of radio plays for the BBC, and the dialogue snippets my dad recorded in his diaries London and Europe in the 1940s, and how much these little moments can show us about our shared humanity. Even when they’re a bit scary or heartbreaking (especially so).
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Anyway, I recorded the video hobbling up the street after getting off the tram because it made me laugh, and God knows we need to laugh in the midst of chaos. What relief!
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And over the hours after posting it yesterday… it seemed to collect thousands of views, comments and shares. It’s now been viewed 30 000 times! 🤯

​Here’s what my unexpectedly viral video has to teach on stories people love to share:

1: HOOK HOOK HOOK – you’ve gotta hook people in a second or so!

The HOOK to your story is the first Story Star Code for a reason!

Find the the relatable situation, people, place, emotional stakes (aka danger), unexpected responses and there’s your hook.

​The first line of my reel was

“Alright so i was on the 86 tram…”

​Anyone in Melbourne knows this place. We know the situation and see ourselves there. We SMELL IT. It’s a notorious tram line. Anyone in Melbourne who has ever caught a tram or had to go to Smith Street for any reason can place themselves in the story immediately. They feel the tension, they know something unexpected is definitely coming next…
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​2: Write the story (or record yourself summarising it) then delete a third
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This gels with Pixar’s rules of storytelling to ‘start late, finish early’…

I actually deleted the whole 1 minute preamble before “so i was on the 86 tram…”. Because I was relating it to my situation, my understanding of this intense full moon (my GOD what a full moon it’s been), and that’s all boring.

Because as i say to writers: even with memoir, nobody cares about you or what you wore or ate that day. They need to RELATE to the story to care about it.
PLACE them in the thick of it.  Ask yourself: what was actually at stake here? To get to the gist of it all…

Quickly.
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​3: Try not to cast judgement. Just tell the story. We are all hero / villain / victims navigating this wild life / full moon 🌝

​I’ve said before that every character archetype in storytelling is YOU. The mentor. The hero. The Shadow. All of it.

And honestly, as scary / crazy as the situation was (I have a knee injury so I can’t move very fast, I was actually on my way to hospital to see a surgeon!)…BUT I can COMPLETELY relate to the two characters in conflict, and honestly, we are all just projections and mirrors of ourselves in another!
My partner shared the reel with his best friend, who immediately related to the man who said ‘don’t touch me’ without even bothering to find out what the old man wanted. Sometimes you just don’t want to be interfered with, even if it IS just to share the time! 😂 We’ve all got our own interior narrative going on.
I could also relate to the old man who suddenly started lecturing the young man on finding a wife (!) because he couldn’t even take his ear buds out to share the time of day 😭😭😭
​They are all me, on different days of the week.​
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​Anyway, I had to put my ego aside to share this reel because i was limping, with a cold sore, looking and feeling pretty terrible to be honest, but it was just such a funny encounter I had to share.

How was your full moon? 🌝

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Louisa xo

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​I also think it went viral because a lot of people catching that 86 tram are literally scrolling their phones for a distraction from the people rubbing up alongside them 😂😂😂.​
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