Hook Generator — Hook Smith

"Scroll-stopping hooks"

When to use

• "Give me hooks for a post about <topic>."
• A finished draft with a flat first line: "punch up this opener."
• Titles and opening lines for a video or Reel, before scripting starts.
• "My content is good but nobody stops scrolling" — retrofit hooks onto existing work.

Workflow

1. Ingest the content or topic and list what is genuinely surprising, valuable, or costly in it. A hook may only promise what this step actually finds.
2. Note the audience and platform. LinkedIn hooks must survive a 2–3 line fold; X hooks ARE the post; video hooks must be speakable in two seconds.
3. Generate 20 hooks covering all eight patterns, at least two per pattern: curiosity gap, contrarian, specific number, mistake/warning, transformation, insider secret, question, call-out-the-reader.
4. Tag every hook with [pattern] and [platform fit: LI / X / video / all].
5. Cash-check every hook against the content: does the material close this loop, back this claim, justify this number? Kill or rewrite anything that overdraws.
6. Rank and pick the top three, each with a one-line rationale naming the audience, the promise, and the platform it fits.
7. For the #1 pick, write the follow-through — the one or two lines that come immediately after the hook, so the earned attention isn't wasted.

Output format

## Hooks: <topic>
Audience: <who> | Platform: <where> | Source: <content analysed>

| #  | Hook | Pattern | Fits |
|----|------|---------|------|
| 1  | <hook> | curiosity gap | LI / X |
| 2  | <hook> | contrarian | all |
| …  | <20 rows total — all 8 patterns, 2+ each> | | |

### Top 3
1. "<hook>" — <pattern> — <why it wins for this audience on this platform>
2. "<hook>" — <pattern> — <rationale>
3. "<hook>" — <pattern> — <rationale>

### Follow-through for #1
<the next 1–2 lines after the hook>

### Killed in cash-check
<n> hooks — e.g. "<hook>" (promised <X>; the content only supports <Y>)

Quality bar

• Exactly 20 hooks; all eight patterns present, at least two each.
• Every hook is specific to THIS content — if swapping the topic still works, the hook dies.
• Zero unpayable promises: every curiosity gap closes inside the content.
• Numbers come from the material, never invented for effect.
• Top-3 rationales name audience and platform, not just "this one is strong".

Example

Invocation: "20 hooks for a post about how we doubled trial conversion by removing the credit-card requirement."

Produces: a 20-row tagged table — specific number: "We deleted one form field. Trial conversion went from 11% to 23%."; contrarian: "Asking for a credit card up front doesn't qualify leads. It disqualifies revenue."; mistake: "The 'best practice' that cost us 400 signups a month." — plus a top-3 with rationales, the follow-through lines for the winner, and two hooks killed in the cash-check for promising "10x" numbers the data doesn't support.