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Hook library

60 hooks, and where each one fails

Templates, not sentences. Somebody else’s finished hook about skincare is no use if you film woodwork, but the shape underneath it transfers to anything. Ten families, six templates each, one worked example, and a plain note on where every one of them backfires, because a hook used in the wrong place is worse than no hook at all.

If you want the reasoning behind all of this first, start with how to write a hook that stops the scroll.

01

The curiosity gap

Works becauseIt names something specific and withholds one piece of it. The thumb stops because the sentence is unfinished, not because it was interesting.

Fails whenWhen the gap never closes, or closes at second forty. Withholding is a loan against the viewer’s patience and the interest rate is brutal. Pay it back inside about eight seconds.

  • Nobody tells you what happens after the obvious step everyone knows.
  • I did the thing for duration and the result was not what I expected.
  • There is one reason common outcome keeps happening and it is not the usual explanation.
  • This is the part of familiar process that nobody films.
  • Number of these items are fine. One of them is the problem.
  • The difference between A and B is one thing, and it is not the obvious one.

Filled in“Nobody tells you what happens after you finally hit 10,000 followers.”

02

The direct callout

Works becauseIt addresses one person and lets everyone else scroll. Naming a narrow group makes the video feel personally addressed, and a narrow audience that watches to the end beats a wide one that does not.

Fails whenWhen the group is so broad it addresses nobody. “If you use your phone” is not a callout. It also fails when the video then talks to everyone anyway: the promise in the first line has to be the video.

  • If you specific situation, this is for you.
  • Stop scrolling if you specific role or problem.
  • Job or identity: you are doing common task the hard way.
  • This is for anyone who has ever specific frustrating experience.
  • If you have tried common solution and it did not work, here is why.
  • You do not need expensive or obvious thing to outcome. You need what you have.

Filled in“If you are filming in a room with one window, stop putting it behind you.”

03

The contrarian open

Works becauseContradicting something the viewer believes creates a small, involuntary need to check. Disagreement is the cheapest form of attention there is.

Fails whenWhen the take is contrarian and wrong, or contrarian and hollow. The comments arrive either way, but the second kind does not come back for the next video, and the platform can tell the difference between a share and a pile-on.

  • Everything you have been told about topic is backwards.
  • Widely repeated advice is why your outcome is not working.
  • Stop doing popular practice. Here is what to do instead.
  • Authority figure or category is wrong about thing, and here is the evidence.
  • The tool or method everyone recommends is the worst option for use case.
  • I did the opposite of standard advice for duration. Here is what happened.

Filled in“Posting every day is the fastest way to make your account worse.”

04

Result first

Works becauseIt opens on the end. The viewer sees proof before they are asked to invest attention, so the rest of the video is a payoff they have already been shown rather than a promise they are being asked to trust.

Fails whenWhen the result is not visually legible in one second, or when it is not actually impressive. A number nobody can calibrate (“+312 signups”) is not a result, it is a claim.

  • This thing took surprisingly short time. Here is how.
  • I outcome in timeframe using constraint that makes it interesting.
  • Before state to after state, in number steps.
  • This is number units of thing. It cost surprisingly small amount.
  • Here is the finished thing. Now watch what it looked like an hour ago.
  • Three people said this was impossible. It took short duration.

Filled in“This shelf took forty minutes and one tool. Here it is going up.”

05

The problem open

Works becauseIt says the thing the viewer has felt and never articulated. Recognition is a stronger stop than curiosity, and it costs nothing to pay back because the video is the answer.

Fails whenWhen the problem is generic, or when the video takes ninety seconds to get to the fix. Naming a pain and then not solving it is the fastest way to teach an audience to scroll past you.

  • You do the thing and bad outcome anyway. Here is what is actually happening.
  • The reason frustrating thing keeps happening is cause, not what you assumed.
  • If symptom, you have underlying problem. It takes short time to fix.
  • Everyone has this problem with thing and almost nobody knows the fix.
  • Thing is not broken. It is misconfigured or misused and here is where.
  • This one mistake undoes everything else you are doing right with topic.

Filled in“Your videos are sharp on your phone and blurry once they upload. That is one setting.”

06

The counted promise

Works becauseA number tells the viewer exactly how much of their time is being asked for and gives them a place to stop. Counted videos hold retention because every item is a fresh, small commitment.

Fails whenWhen the count is padded. Five tips where two are real teaches people that your numbers are decoration. Three good ones beats seven of anything.

  • Number things that outcome, starting with the one nobody uses.
  • Number mistakes in topic. The ordinal one costs the most.
  • Number ways to outcome with constraint.
  • The only number things you need for goal.
  • Number things I wish I knew before common milestone.
  • Number settings to change in app or tool right now.

Filled in“Three camera settings to change before your next video. The third one is free.”

07

Starting mid-story

Works becauseOpening in the middle of an event skips the setup entirely. There is no “hey guys”, no context, no throat-clearing, and the viewer is oriented by the next two sentences rather than the first.

Fails whenWhen there is no story, only a framing device. Audiences have been trained on this one and can smell a fabricated anecdote in about two seconds. It also fails when the middle you chose is not actually interesting.

  • So dramatic event and I still had to mundane obligation.
  • The person looked at me and said line. I want to talk about that.
  • I was doing the ordinary thing when the thing that changed it.
  • Six months ago I decision. Here is what I would tell myself.
  • This is the message that made me change something.
  • I almost did not post this.

Filled in“The client sent the brief back at 11pm with one word on it. That word cost me a week.”

08

The silent demonstration

Works becauseNo spoken hook at all. Something visually unresolved happens in frame one and the viewer stays to see how it ends. It is the only hook family that works with the sound off, which is how a large share of first views actually happen.

Fails whenWhen the action is legible in a single frame. If the viewer can see the outcome from the thumbnail there is nothing to wait for. It also fails on talking-head content, where there is nothing to demonstrate.

  • Open on the unusual state with no explanation. Explain at 3 to 5 seconds.
  • Start the process already in progress, at the messiest point.
  • Hold the object in a way that makes no sense until the reveal.
  • Show the two things side by side. Say nothing.
  • Begin with the tool already moving.
  • Open on the mistake, not the method.

Filled in“The pan is already smoking and the fish is already in it. No intro, no title card.”

09

The real question

Works becauseA question the viewer cannot answer creates a small itch. The key word is “cannot”: a question they can answer instantly is a dead stop, not a hook.

Fails whenAlmost always, honestly. “Do you want to grow on Instagram?” is a question in the way a doorbell is a conversation. Use this family least, and only when the question is genuinely hard.

  • Why does common thing happen to group and not other group?
  • What is the actual difference between A and B?
  • How much resource does surprising thing really take?
  • Which of these items is the superlative? It is not the one you think.
  • What would you do with constraint?
  • Why is nobody talking about specific, checkable thing?

Filled in“Why do two identical videos get 400 views and 40,000 views on the same account?”

10

The stake

Works becauseIt attaches a cost to not watching. Loss is a stronger motivator than gain, which is why a warning outperforms the same information framed as a tip.

Fails whenWhen the stake is invented. Manufactured urgency is the single most punished pattern in short video: it converts once, and it costs you the account. Only use it when there is a real cost.

  • If you are still practice, you are concrete cost.
  • This mistake is costing you specific, quantified thing.
  • Do not action until you have checked thing.
  • Deadline or change is coming and group is not ready.
  • The thing you are about to buy has problem. Check this first.
  • I lost specific thing learning this. You do not have to.

Filled in“If you are still exporting at 30fps, half your footage is being thrown away on upload.”

How to use these without sounding like a template

  1. Pick the family that matches what your video actually does. A reversal video needs a curiosity gap; a tutorial needs a counted promise. Using the wrong family is the most common failure.
  2. Fill the slot with the most specific thing you can. Specificity is what makes a template stop reading as one.
  3. Write five, keep the fifth. The first two are the obvious ones and the interesting things happen after that.
  4. Say it out loud. If you would not say it to a person, rewrite it until you would.
  5. Put it on the screen as text too, because a large share of first views happen with the sound off.