/copywriting-hooks

name: copywriting-hooks
description: >
  Writes opening hooks and post titles for long-form articles in EN or FR — blog posts, Substack/Medium/dev.to, LinkedIn long-form, newsletters, essays. Trigger whenever the user asks for a hook, opening, lede, intro, first sentence/paragraph, opener, accroche, attaque, phrase d'accroche, or première phrase — including punching up a flat intro or draft opening — or for a post title, titre d'article, or headline. Do NOT trigger for social posts (LinkedIn feed, Twitter/X, TikTok, Bluesky), READMEs, taglines, email subjects, ad copy, landing-page headlines, press releases, SEO meta, or body rewrites. Do NOT use for end-of-article CTAs — use samber/cc-skills@copywriting-cta instead.

user-invocable: true
license: MIT
compatibility: Designed for Claude Code, Codex or similar harness.
metadata:
  author: samber
  version: "1.1.2"
  openclaw:
    emoji: "🪝"
    homepage: https://github.com/samber/cc-skills
allowed-tools: Read Edit Write Glob Grep Agent AskUserQuestion

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.

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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:**

| Article type | Strong hooks | Avoid | | --- | --- | --- | | Technical deep-dive | concrete detail, statistic, contrarian, direct problem | personal confession, scene opener | | Personal essay | in medias res, personal confession, time anchor, definition reversal | bold claim, direct problem | | Opinion / contrarian | bold claim, definition reversal, contrarian, quote + disagreement | gentle setup, dictionary opener | | Tutorial / how-to | direct problem (PAS), promise, conditional | scene opener, historical analogy | | Reported / investigative | concrete detail, time anchor, in medias res, statistic | bold claim, definition reversal | | Listicle | curiosity gap, counted stakes, conditional | personal confession, in medias res | | Longform analysis | historical analogy, statistic, contrarian | direct problem | | Newsletter issue | personal confession + open loop, conditional, curiosity gap | dictionary opener |

---

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.

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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