Copywriting Hooks

Copywriting Hooks

The method

A hook's only job is to make the reader want sentence 2. Voice, structure, formatting, all of it, follow from that one job.

What makes a reader want sentence 2 is one of five levers:

1. Open a gap. Pose something incomplete that the reader needs to close. Curiosity gap, question, open loop.
2. Break a prediction. State something that violates the reader's prior. Contrarian, definition reversal, surprising statistic.
3. Drop into a scene. Load sensory or specific detail that builds a vivid frame. In medias res, concrete detail, time anchor.
4. Promise a payoff. Name an outcome the reader wants. Benefit, "if you... then this", direct problem.
5. Borrow weight. Lean on a name, number, or quote that carries embedded authority. Authority hook, statistic, quote with disagreement.

A strong hook usually pulls two levers at once. "Frank Sinatra, holding a glass of bourbon..." is scene plus open loop. "Most people think X. They're wrong." is prediction-break plus gap. Single-lever hooks can still work but are easier to ignore.

Three further principles:

• Specific beats abstract every time. Replace "many companies" with "Stripe, Shopify, Vercel". Replace "recently" with a date. Replace "studies show" with the actual finding or cut the claim.
• The first sentence must force the second. Read each candidate cold. If you would not click sentence 2 after sentence 1, rewrite.
• Match technique to article type. Personal essay does not open like a tutorial. See the type-fit table below.

Behavior

When this skill triggers:

1. Confirm the brief. Topic, audience, target language (EN, FR, or both), approximate length, where it will be published. If any of these is unclear and material, ask before generating.
2. Pick 3 to 4 hooks from the catalog below that are genuinely different. Different levers, not three flavors of contrarian.
3. Write 2 candidates per hook, specific to the user's article. The two candidates within one hook should explore different angles (different anecdote, different statistic, different scene), not be rewordings of each other.
4. Present using the Output format below.
5. Ask through the question tool. The choice is a small fixed set, which is what that tool is for.
6. Wait for the user's pick. Do not pick for them.
7. After they pick, name what the choice commits the rest of the article to. A contrarian hook commits paragraphs 2 to 3 to defending the non-consensus claim. A scene opener commits the next section to either resolving the scene or productively delaying it.

Diversification rule. Across your 3 to 4 options include at minimum:

• One intellectual hook (contrarian, definition reversal, historical analogy, curiosity gap)
• One sensory hook (in medias res, concrete detail)
• One reader-direct hook (conditional, direct problem, promise)

This guarantees real choice. Three flavors of contrarian is not a choice.

Type-fit reference:

Output format

Always present options exactly like this:

## Hook options for: [working title]

**Option 1: [Hook name]** ([lever])
A. [Candidate 1]
B. [Candidate 2]

**Option 2: [Hook name]** ([lever])
A. [Candidate 1]
B. [Candidate 2]

**Option 3: [Hook name]** ([lever])
A. [Candidate 1]
B. [Candidate 2]

Which? Reply with letter combination (e.g., "1B") or "more" for different techniques.

If the user says "more" or "none", produce 3 different hooks (not new candidates for the same hooks). If the user says "blend 1A and 2B", write a combined hook and check in again.

The hook catalog (18)

Each hook: what it does, examples (mix EN and FR, real and illustrative), when to use, when to avoid.

1. Curiosity Gap

Open an information gap the reader wants closed.

• EN: "How does Shen Yun make any money? Short answer: they don't." (Packy McCormick)
• EN: "Many years ago, one mustard dominated the supermarket shelves: French's." (Gladwell, "The Ketchup Conundrum")
• FR: "Trois startups françaises ont franchi le milliard cette année. Aucune n'est dans la tech."
• EN: "I've been a surgeon for eight years. For the past couple of them, my performance in the operating room has reached a plateau." (Gawande)

Use when: you can honestly close the gap in 2 or 3 sentences. The gap must be one the reader cares about. Avoid: vague gaps ("You won't believe what happened next") that the reader cannot even guess at.

2. Contrarian

Knock down a consensus belief the reader holds.

• EN: "Prevailing wisdom claims that the best way to achieve what we want in life is to set specific, actionable goals." (Clear, "Forget About Setting Goals", proceeds to argue the opposite)
• EN: "To do something well you have to like it. That idea is not exactly novel." (Graham, "Do What You Love", proceeds to complicate it)
• EN: "If you're not saying 'HELL YEAH!' about something, say no." (Sivers)
• FR: "Le Marketing est TOUT ce que l'IA ne peut pas faire !" (Truphème)

Use when: you have a defensible non-consensus view and 200 to 400 words to defend it. Avoid: strawmen, gratuitous edginess, contrarianism for its own sake.

3. Bold Claim / Promise

State the outcome upfront, before the proof.

• EN: "At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock." (Ogilvy)
• EN: "They laughed when I sat down at the piano. But when I started to play!—" (Caples 1925)
• EN: "Give me 15 minutes and I'll give you a super-power memory." (Schwartz)
• FR: "En 5 minutes : la structure qui fait passer le taux de complétion d'un article de 18% à 64%."

Use when: you can deliver on the promise concretely in the article. Avoid: promises larger than the payoff. Destroys trust permanently.

4. Scene Opener / In Medias Res

Drop the reader inside a specific moment, no setup.

• EN: "Frank Sinatra, holding a glass of bourbon in one hand and a cigarette in the other, stood in a dark corner of the bar between two attractive but fading blondes who sat waiting for him to say something." (Talese)
• EN: "We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold." (Thompson)
• EN: "The center was not holding." (Didion)
• FR: "Le 14 mai 2024, à 6h12, trois hommes en civil sonnent à la porte d'un appartement du XVe arrondissement."

Use when: longform, profile, reported piece, essay. Avoid: short technical pieces where the reader has not earned the scene yet.

5. Surprising Statistic

Lead with a number that violates the prior.

• EN: "You have five seconds to get people's attention." (Housel, self-demonstrating)
• EN: "Thirty-seven thousand Americans died in car accidents in 1955, six times today's rate adjusted for miles driven." (Housel)
• EN: "Approximately 40 percent of the actions you perform each day are habits, not actual decisions." (Clear)
• FR: "Tu as moins de 3 secondes pour convaincre tes audiences que ton contenu est intéressant." (Truphème)