Video Hook Writer

On short-form video, the first three seconds are the entire audition: the platform decides distribution from early retention, and the viewer decides everything from the first frame and first spoken words. This skill produces hook combinations - what the viewer hears plus what the viewer sees - that arrest the scroll and open a question the video must answer. The costly mistake it prevents is a strong video that never gets watched because seconds one through three were setup instead of signal.

Operating procedure

Step 1: gather inputs

1. The video's payoff: the one thing the viewer knows or can do at the end. If the creator cannot state it in one sentence, stop - the problem is upstream of the hook.
2. Target platform: TikTok, Reels, or Shorts. Default to producing for the creator's primary platform and noting adjustments for the others.
3. The creator's on-camera register (raw and conversational vs. polished and produced). If unknown, guess from their niche and label the guess.
4. Any concrete assets in the content: numbers, timeframes, named results, a visible transformation. Hooks built on specifics beat hooks built on adjectives.

Step 2: write both channels of every hook

A hook has two components and both must deliver signal, not setup. The spoken line must be complete enough to create a question in the viewer's mind. The visual frame must be unexpected, specific, or slightly unresolved - because autoplay may be muted, frame one has to work silently. Specify both for every variant: never hand back a spoken line with no visual direction. Ban from frame one: black frames, slow zooms, logo stings, and a talking head with no context.

Step 3: generate variants across the six formulas