A repeatable hook-writing system
Never stare at a blank first line again.
Jervis Koh · tested in my own business
Working realtor, The Real Matters. If a prompt doesn't survive real clients, it isn't here.
The first line decides everything. Ask AI for 10 hooks across patterns — curiosity, contrarian, a specific number, 'I was wrong about X' — each under 12 words, and always write the hook last.
The first line decides whether anyone reads the second, so it deserves disproportionate effort. The mistake is treating hooks as a spark you wait for. Treat them as a system you run — generate many across proven patterns, sharpen the best — and you'll never stare at a blank first line again.
Hooks come in patterns
Strong hooks aren't random; they pull a few psychological levers. The curiosity gap opens a loop the reader needs closed. The contrarian take challenges a held belief. The specific number signals concrete value. The vulnerable admission ('I was wrong about X') earns attention through honesty. Once you know the levers, you can ask AI to generate across all of them and pick what fits.
The promise-payoff contract
The line you must not cross: a hook makes a promise, and the content must pay it off. Clickbait that over-promises gets the click but burns trust — the only durable asset in content. This is also why you write the hook last: you can only honestly promise what the piece actually delivers once it exists. Draft the content, then mine it for the most compelling true thing to lead with.
Keep a swipe file
When a hook of yours performs, or one in the wild stops your scroll, save it. Over time you build a personal swipe file of proven structures you can hand to AI as examples: 'write hooks in the style of these'. Models imitate concrete examples far better than abstract instructions, so a swipe file quietly raises the ceiling on every hook you generate.
- 1Draft the whole post first, so you know exactly what it delivers before you sell it.
- 2Ask AI for 10 hooks across different patterns (curiosity gap, contrarian take, a specific number, 'I was wrong about X'), each under 12 words.
- 3Read them out loud and cut any that promise more than the post actually pays off.
- 4Pick the two strongest; run both if the platform lets you test, or use one and hold the other for next time.
- 5Make sure the first two lines of the post deliver on the hook's promise, or rewrite the opening.
- 6After it runs, save the hooks that performed into a swipe file with a one-line note on why they worked.
- 7Feed that swipe file back to AI next time so its hooks start to sound like yours.
Hook-writing prompts
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