Copywriting Hooks

Generates opening hooks and titles for long-form articles by presenting three to four psychologically distinct techniques, each with two candidates, then waits for you to pick. Pulls from eighteen catalogued hook types organized around five levers: curiosity gap, prediction break, scene drop, promise, and borrowed authority. Works for blog posts, newsletters, opinion pieces, technical deep-dives, both English and French. Won't trigger for social posts, ad copy, or email subject lines. The diversification rule is smart: forces at least one intellectual hook, one sensory hook, and one reader-direct hook across the batch so you actually get real choices instead of three variations on contrarian. Includes a type-fit table that steers you away from opening a tutorial with a personal confession or a technical post with scene-setting.

skills.sh installs: 6.4K
GitHub stars: 242
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add samber/cc-skills --skill copywriting-hooks --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

Copywriting Hooks

The method

A hook's only job is to make the reader want sentence 2. Voice, structure, formatting, all of it, follow from that one job.

What makes a reader want sentence 2 is one of five levers:

Open a gap. Pose something incomplete that the reader needs to close. Curiosity gap, question, open loop.
Break a prediction. State something that violates the reader's prior. Contrarian, definition reversal, surprising statistic.
Drop into a scene. Load sensory or specific detail that builds a vivid frame. In medias res, concrete detail, time anchor.
Promise a payoff. Name an outcome the reader wants. Benefit, "if you... then this", direct problem.
Borrow weight. Lean on a name, number, or quote that carries embedded authority. Authority hook, statistic, quote with disagreement.

A strong hook usually pulls two levers at once. "Frank Sinatra, holding a glass of bourbon..." is scene plus open loop. "Most people think X. They're wrong." is prediction-break plus gap. Single-lever hooks can still work but are easier to ignore.

Three further principles:

SKILL.md on GitHub