# Copywriting hooks Human Guide

## What This Is For
A hook's only job is to make the reader want sentence 2. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for content production: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Copywriting hooks agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for copywriting hooks.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Copywriting hooks guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- **Open a gap.** Pose something incomplete that the reader needs to close. Curiosity gap, question, open loop.
- **Break a prediction.** State something that violates the reader's prior. Contrarian, definition reversal, surprising statistic.
- **Drop into a scene.** Load sensory or specific detail that builds a vivid frame. In medias res, concrete detail, time anchor.
- **Promise a payoff.** Name an outcome the reader wants. Benefit, "if you... then this", direct problem.
- **Borrow weight.** Lean on a name, number, or quote that carries embedded authority. Authority hook, statistic, quote with disagreement.
- **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.
- **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.
- **Pick 3 to 4 hooks from the catalog** below that are genuinely different. Different levers, not three flavors of contrarian.
- **Present using the Output format** below.
- **Use `ask_user_input_v0`** if available. The choice is a small fixed set, which is what that tool is for.

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: The method, Behavior, Output format, Hook options for: [working title], The hook catalog (18), Curiosity Gap, Contrarian, Bold Claim / Promise, Scene Opener / In Medias Res, Surprising Statistic.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- **The first sentence must force the second.** Read each candidate cold. If you would not click sentence 2 after sentence 1, rewrite.
- **Wait for the user's pick.** Do not pick for them.
- | Article type | Strong hooks | Avoid |
- Each hook: what it does, examples (mix EN and FR, real and illustrative), when to use, when to avoid.
- 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")
- **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.
- **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.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Copywriting hooks human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the samber/cc-skills skill entry for `copywriting-hooks`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# 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. **Use `ask_user_input_v0`** if available. 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.
```