Hook Factory — 20 hooks, structure first

Weak content is usually strong content with a dead first line. Hooks are not phrasing exercises — they are structural choices. This skill picks structures first, then writes into them, which is how you get 20 genuinely different hooks instead of 20 rewordings of one.

Inputs

• The topic, angle, or draft the hooks are for, plus who it is aimed at: $ARGUMENTS
• From marketing-brief.md if present: the audience's language bank (voice-of-customer), top pains, desired outcomes, and the banned-phrases list.

Do this

1. Name the one payoff the content delivers. Every hook must promise this payoff or set up the tension it resolves. If the payoff is fuzzy, sharpen it before writing a single hook.
2. Write 4 hooks in each of these five structures (20 total):
   • Specific number / result — a concrete stat or outcome, no adjectives doing the work.
   • Curiosity gap — open a loop the reader can only close by continuing; never clickbait that the content cannot pay off.
   • Bold claim / contrarian take — challenge what the audience believes, only if the content actually backs it.
   • Pattern interrupt — say the thing nobody says out loud, or start mid-scene.
   • Story open — a moment, not a summary. First line puts the reader somewhere.
3. Write each hook in the audience's own language (pull from the voice-of-customer bank where available), not marketing language.
4. Rank the 20. Score each on: stops the scroll (1–5), matches the content's real payoff (1–5), sounds like a person (1–5). Show the top 5 with one line of reasoning each.
5. For the #1 hook, write the second line too — the hook's job is to get the second line read, and the second line loses most writers.

Output

All 20 hooks grouped by structure, then the ranked top 5 with reasoning, then the #1 hook with its second line. Flag any hook that over-promises what the content delivers.

Rules

• The hook may exaggerate curiosity, never facts. If the content cannot cash the cheque, the hook does not get written.
• No engagement-bait fingerprints: no "unpopular opinion:", no "I'm going to say it:", no rhetorical "What if I told you".
• Specificity beats cleverness. "247 replies" beats "a flood of replies".
• One idea per hook. A hook carrying two ideas is two weak hooks.