Copywriting Hooks

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:

1. Open a gap. Pose something incomplete that the reader needs to close. Curiosity gap, question, open loop. 2. Break a prediction. State something that violates the reader's prior. Contrarian, definition reversal, surprising statistic. 3. Drop into a scene. Load sensory or specific detail that builds a vivid frame. In medias res, concrete detail, time anchor. 4. Promise a payoff. Name an outcome the reader wants. Benefit, "if you... then this", direct problem. 5. 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:

• Specific beats abstract every time. Replace "many companies" with "Stripe, Shopify, Vercel". Replace "recently" with a date. Replace "studies show" with the actual finding or cut the claim.
• The first sentence must force the second. Read each candidate cold. If you would not click sentence 2 after sentence 1, rewrite.
• Match technique to article type. Personal essay does not open like a tutorial. See the type-fit table below.

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Behavior

When this skill triggers:

1. Confirm the brief. Topic, audience, target language (EN, FR, or both), approximate length, where it will be published. If any of these is unclear and material, ask before generating. 2. Pick 3 to 4 hooks from the catalog below that are genuinely different. Different levers, not three flavors of contrarian. 3. Write 2 candidates per hook, specific to the user's article. The two candidates within one hook should explore different angles (different anecdote, different statistic, different scene), not be rewordings of each other. 4. Present using the Output format below. 5. Use `ask_user_input_v0` if available. The choice is a small fixed set, which is what that tool is for. 6. Wait for the user's pick. Do not pick for them. 7. After they pick, name what the choice commits the rest of the article to. A contrarian hook commits paragraphs 2 to 3 to defending the non-consensus claim. A scene opener commits the next section to either resolving the scene or productively delaying it.

Diversification rule. Across your 3 to 4 options include at minimum:

• One intellectual hook (contrarian, definition reversal, historical analogy, curiosity gap)
• One sensory hook (in medias res, concrete detail)
• One reader-direct hook (conditional, direct problem, promise)

This guarantees real choice. Three flavors of contrarian is not a choice.

Type-fit reference:

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Output format

Always present options exactly like this:

## Hook options for: [working title]

**Option 1: [Hook name]** ([lever])
A. [Candidate 1]
B. [Candidate 2]

**Option 2: [Hook name]** ([lever])
A. [Candidate 1]
B. [Candidate 2]

**Option 3: [Hook name]** ([lever])
A. [Candidate 1]
B. [Candidate 2]

Which? Reply with letter combination (e.g., "1B") or "more" for different techniques.

If the user says "more" or "none", produce 3 different hooks (not new candidates for the same hooks). If the user says "blend 1A and 2B", write a combined hook and check in again.

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The hook catalog (18)

Each hook: what it does, examples (mix EN and FR, real and illustrative), when to use, when to avoid.

1. Curiosity Gap

Open an information gap the reader wants closed.

• EN: "How does Shen Yun make any money? Short answer: they don't." (Packy McCormick)
• EN: "Many years ago, one mustard dominated the supermarket shelves: French's." (Gladwell, "The Ketchup Conundrum")
• FR: "Trois startups françaises ont franchi le milliard cette année. Aucune n'est dans la tech."
• EN: "I've been a surgeon for eight years. For the past couple of them, my performance in the operating room has reached a plateau." (Gawande)

Use when: you can honestly close the gap in 2 or 3 sentences. The gap must be one the reader cares about. Avoid: vague gaps ("You won't believe what happened next") that the reader cannot even guess at.

2. Contrarian

Knock down a consensus belief the reader holds.

• EN: "Prevailing wisdom claims that the best way to achieve what we want in life is to set specific, actionable goals." (Clear, "Forget About Setting Goals", proceeds to argue the opposite)
• EN: "To do something well you have to like it. That idea is not exactly novel." (Graham, "Do What You Love", proceeds to complicate it)
• EN: "If you're not saying 'HELL YEAH!' about something, say no." (Sivers)
• FR: "Le Marketing est TOUT ce que l'IA ne peut pas faire !" (Truphème)

Use when: you have a defensible non-consensus view and 200 to 400 words to defend it. Avoid: strawmen, gratuitous edginess, contrarianism for its own sake.

3. Bold Claim / Promise

State the outcome upfront, before the proof.

• EN: "At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock." (Ogilvy)
• EN: "They laughed when I sat down at the piano. But when I started to play!—" (Caples 1925)
• EN: "Give me 15 minutes and I'll give you a super-power memory." (Schwartz)
• FR: "En 5 minutes : la structure qui fait passer le taux de complétion d'un article de 18% à 64%."

Use when: you can deliver on the promise concretely in the article. Avoid: promises larger than the payoff. Destroys trust permanently.

4. Scene Opener / In Medias Res

Drop the reader inside a specific moment, no setup.

• EN: "Frank Sinatra, holding a glass of bourbon in one hand and a cigarette in the other, stood in a dark corner of the bar between two attractive but fading blondes who sat waiting for him to say something." (Talese)
• EN: "We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold." (Thompson)
• EN: "The center was not holding." (Didion)
• FR: "Le 14 mai 2024, à 6h12, trois hommes en civil sonnent à la porte d'un appartement du XVe arrondissement."

Use when: longform, profile, reported piece, essay. Avoid: short technical pieces where the reader has not earned the scene yet.

5. Surprising Statistic

Lead with a number that violates the prior.

• EN: "You have five seconds to get people's attention." (Housel, self-demonstrating)
• EN: "Thirty-seven thousand Americans died in car accidents in 1955, six times today's rate adjusted for miles driven." (Housel)
• EN: "Approximately 40 percent of the actions you perform each day are habits, not actual decisions." (Clear)
• FR: "Tu as moins de 3 secondes pour convaincre tes audiences que ton contenu est intéressant." (Truphème)

Use when: the number is genuinely surprising and you can cite it accurately. Avoid: vague stats ("studies show 90%..."), stats that confirm the reader's prior (no surprise equals no hook).

6. Question

Pose a question the reader actually wants answered.

• EN: "If you collected lists of techniques for doing great work in a lot of different fields, what would the intersection look like?" (Graham)
• EN: "Why do we make kids go to school?" (Caplan)
• FR: "Pourquoi 80% des articles LinkedIn ne dépassent jamais 100 vues ? Spoiler : ce n'est pas l'algorithme."
• FR: "Avez-vous le courage de gagner la moitié d'un million de dollars cette année ?" (Schwartz)

Use when: the reader was implicitly carrying the question. Avoid: "Have you ever wondered...?", "Did you know...?", "What if I told you...?". These presuppose curiosity not yet formed.

7. Quote + Disagreement

Borrow weight, then twist.

• EN: "Vernor Vinge: 'We are on the edge of change comparable to the rise of human life on Earth.'" (Urban setup)
• EN: "Steve Jobs said people don't know what they want until you show it to them. For SaaS, this is exactly backwards."
• EN: "Henry Ford supposedly said his customers would have asked for faster horses. For most products, that excuse is wrong."
• FR: "Henry Ford disait qu'on lui aurait demandé des chevaux plus rapides. Pour 90% des produits, c'est faux."

Use when: you have a real quote that supports or genuinely contrasts your point. Avoid: misattributed Einstein, Seneca, Confucius, Bouddha platitudes. Cliché.

8. Personal Confession

Admit something vulnerable, then universalize.

• EN: "I cheated on my husband." (Strayed)
• EN: "I've been thinking about my parents, who are in their mid-60s. During my first 18 years, I spent some time with my parents during at least 90% of my days." (Urban, "The Tail End")
• EN: "It's been a minute. This is as long as I've gone without writing an essay since starting Not Boring." (McCormick)
• FR: "À 34 ans, j'ai démissionné sans plan B. Voici ce que personne ne dit sur la suite."

Use when: personal byline, essay, newsletter. Avoid: corporate byline, technical articles where the author voice is not personal, performative vulnerability ("I almost didn't write this...").

9. Concrete Specific Detail

Replace abstraction with a single vivid detail.

• EN: "John Laroche is a tall guy, skinny as a stick, pale-eyed, slouch-shouldered, and sharply handsome, despite the fact that he is missing all his front teeth." (Orlean)
• EN: "Charles Bukowski was an alcoholic, a womanizer, a chronic gambler, a lout, a cheapskate, a deadbeat, and on his worst days, a poet." (Manson)
• FR: "Quand on la voit arriver dans les locaux du Bondy Blog, ce samedi 24 février, difficile de se dire qu'elle est fichée illégalement par les services de renseignement français."
• FR: "Un Post-it collé sur mon écran : 'Supprime ton premier paragraphe.'"

Use when: profile, reported piece, contrarian biographical setup. Avoid: specificity that does not advance the thesis (clutter).

10. Pattern Interrupt

Break expected rhythm with a fragment.

• EN: "Wait." (Godin style)
• EN: "Stop."
• EN: "This is not an article about productivity. It's an article about identity."
• FR: "Non. Ce que vous avez lu cette semaine sur l'IA est faux. Voici pourquoi."

Use when: rhythm-driven content, opinion piece, when the reader expects flow and you want to interrupt it. Avoid: every article. It becomes its own pattern fast.

11. Direct Problem (PAS)

Name the pain, sharpen it, hint at solution.

• EN: "Your articles aren't read. The data says you lose 80% of readers by paragraph two. There's a fix, and it's not what you've been doing."
• EN: "If you're like most marketing managers, you don't have enough time to write your white papers, and the ones you outsource come back generic." (Bly)
• FR: "Vos emails ne sont pas ouverts. Trois mois, taux plafonné à 12%. Le problème n'est pas l'objet, c'est l'expéditeur."
• FR: "Vos articles ne sont pas lus. 80% des lecteurs décrochent dès le deuxième paragraphe. Et la solution n'est pas celle que vous croyez."

Use when: tutorial, how-to, sales-adjacent content. Avoid: manufactured problems. Reads as fear-mongering. The pain must be real and recognizable.

12. Promise / Benefit

State a specific, bounded outcome.

• EN: "Read this in 5 minutes and you'll never write a weak opening again."
• EN: "By the end of this article, you'll know exactly when to use goroutines and when not to."
• EN: "Three things separate writers who get read from writers who don't. None involve writing every day."
• FR: "En 5 minutes : la structure qui fait passer le taux de complétion d'un article de 18% à 64%."

Use when: tutorial, how-to. Avoid: vague promises ("Learn how to be more productive"). Add a time bound or a number to anchor it.

13. Historical Analogy

Open with a vignette from history, pivot to the present.

• EN: "On a Tuesday morning in March 1976, a 21-year-old college dropout sold his Volkswagen Bus for 1,500 dollars. He used the money to build the first Apple computer."
• EN: "In 1965, Robert Lucas wrote a four-page paper that broke macroeconomics."
• EN: Wright Brothers vignette (Housel, "Three Big Things"), pivots to demographics and interest rates.
• FR: "En 1903, à Kitty Hawk, deux frères réparateurs de vélos volent pendant 12 secondes. Personne ne remarque. Voici ce que cette indifférence dit de l'adoption technologique aujourd'hui."

Use when: longform analysis, opinion piece, idea essay. Avoid: tutorials, news pieces. Reads as indulgent.

14. Definition Reversal

"X is not what you think. It's Y."

• EN: "Procrastination isn't laziness. It's a fight between two parts of your brain."
• EN: "This is not an article about productivity. It's an article about identity."
• EN: "Generics were the most requested Go feature for a decade. Three years in, the people who pushed hardest for them are telling you to stop using them."
• FR: "Le copywriting n'est pas de l'écriture. C'est de la psychologie déguisée en phrases."

Use when: opinion piece, contrarian deep dive. Avoid: when your reframe is just a slight angle. Sounds gimmicky.

15. Authority Borrow

Lead with a name plus a specific action.

• EN: "Warren Buffett, at 91, still reads 500 pages a day."
• EN: "When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he killed 70% of the product line in his first year."
• EN: "A boy once asked Charlie Munger..." (Housel narrative variant)
• FR: "Quand Bernard Arnault a racheté Tiffany pour 16 milliards, trois analystes ont prédit un échec. Ils s'étaient tous trompés sur la même chose."

Use when: business piece, profile, analytical essay. Avoid: name-dropping without payoff. The action must be specific and relevant.

16. Time Anchor

Lead with a specific date, hour, or moment.

• EN: "October 2005. Three journalists set up a blog in an apartment of the cité Blanqui, in Bondy."
• EN: "In 2022, the cost of writing a competent article dropped to zero. Most writers haven't noticed."
• EN: "On a Tuesday morning in March 1976, a 21-year-old dropout sold his Volkswagen Bus for 1,500 dollars."
• FR: "Octobre 2005, Bondy. Trois journalistes installent un blog dans un appartement de la cité Blanqui."

Use when: reported piece, retrospective, "why now" framing. Avoid: vague time anchors ("recently", "these past few years"). Use a specific date or cut the time framing.

17. Conditional ("If you... then this")

Self-segment the reader. Pre-target the curiosity.

• EN: "If you write for a living, you've probably been taught to start with context. Don't."
• EN: "If you've ever read a blog post and forgotten what it said within the hour, this article is the diagnostic."
• EN: "If you're not saying 'HELL YEAH!' about something, say no." (Sivers)
• FR: "Si vos articles sont lus à 80% par vos collègues et à 8% par vos prospects, le problème n'est pas le contenu. C'est l'accroche."

Use when: tutorial, advice piece, segmented audience. Avoid: conditions too broad ("If you've ever felt stuck..."). Segments nobody.

18. Open Loop

Start something, withhold the resolution.

• EN: Talese's Sinatra waiting for him to say something. He never says.
• EN: "He pressed Send and waited. Forty-seven seconds later, the company was worth 4 billion dollars less."
• EN: "Now here's where it gets really interesting..." (Sugarman, transition phrase, also valid as opener)
• FR: "J'ai été contacté par un éditeur la semaine dernière. Ce qu'il m'a demandé m'a fait reconsidérer 15 ans de pratique."

Use when: longform, pieces where the journey matters as much as the answer. Avoid: unresolved loops. Creates disproportionate betrayal when the article ends without paying off.

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Anti-patterns (never propose any of these)

Cliché openers that immediately disqualify the writer:

• "In today's fast-paced world..." / "À l'heure du tout-numérique" / "À l'ère de l'IA" / "Dans un monde où..."
• "Have you ever wondered...?" / "Vous êtes-vous déjà demandé...?"
• Dictionary opener played straight ("Productivity, defined as...")
• "In this article, I'll discuss..." / "Dans cet article, nous allons voir..."
• Generic stats without source ("90% of people...", "Les études montrent...")
• Misattributed Einstein / Seneca / Confucius / Bouddha quotes
• "I'm not an expert, but..." / "Je ne suis pas spécialiste mais..."
• Three rhetorical questions in a row
• "Imagine waking up..." without a specific scene
• "Hot take:", "Unpopular opinion:", "Voici la vérité que personne ne veut entendre..."
• "At [Company], we believe..." / "Chez [Entreprise], nous pensons..."
• "Recently,..." / "Récemment,..." without a specific date
• "You're not alone."

Current AI tells (refresh yearly):

• "It's not just X, it's Y" (the formula construction)
• "Picture this:", "Imagine a world where...", "What if I told you..."
• "Whether you're a seasoned X or a curious newcomer..."
• "In the realm of...", "Navigating the landscape of..."
• "Unlock the power of...", "Dive into...", "Buckle up,", "Let's dive in"
• "Crucially,", "Notably,", "Importantly,", "Essentially," as sentence openers
• French AI tells: "Dans un monde en constante évolution", "Plongez dans...", "Découvrez comment...", "Par ailleurs,...", "Notamment,...", "Il est crucial de..."

Run every candidate through this list before presenting. If a candidate matches, rewrite.

For the extended anti-pattern list, see references/anti-patterns.md.

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Language handling

If the audience is French: write in French. Apply the _attaque journalistique_ register: concrete scene-setting, restrained tone, dated anchors, formal "vous" or restrained tutoiement. Do not translate American hype tropes literally. "You'll never believe..." becomes "Vous n'allez pas en croire vos yeux", which reads as scam in French. French marketing-skepticism baseline is higher than English; high promises trigger _réactance_ faster.

If English: default to direct-response register for marketing or tutorial content, longform register for essays and reported pieces.

If bilingual: produce hooks in both languages, label clearly.

For deeper register guidance, see references/anglophone-vs-francophone.md.

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Post Titles

A title is what the reader sees before clicking. A hook is what they read after. Both earn attention through different mechanisms: the title competes for clicks in a feed or search result; the hook earns continued reading after the click.

The core mechanic: calibrated curiosity

A title must open a gap without closing it — but the gap must feel real, not manufactured. Research on 8,977 A/B experiments (Upworthy, _Scientific Reports_ 2024) found a curvilinear relationship: too vague produces confusion (no foothold for curiosity); too specific removes motivation to click. The sweet spot: name the stakes, withhold the resolution.

The craft test. Does the title open a gap the reader cares about, and does the article genuinely close it? If yes, that's craft. If the content doesn't deliver what the title implied, that's clickbait — it destroys trust for future clicks.

Core formulas

Curiosity / Gap

• The [Adjective] Truth About [Topic] — "The Counterintuitive Truth About Go Generics"
• What [Group] Won't Tell You About [Topic]
• The Real Reason [Phenomenon] — "The Real Reason Most Content Gets Zero Shares"
• [Number] Things Every [Audience] Gets Wrong About [Topic]

Contrarian / Negative (negative superlatives: +63% CTR vs. positive — Outbrain, 65k titles)

• Stop [Doing X]. Here's Why. / Why [Common Belief] Is Wrong
• [Number] [Myths/Mistakes] That Are Killing Your [Result]

Specificity / Data

• I Analyzed [Number] [Things] — Here's What I Found
• [Number]% of [Group] Does This Wrong
• Brackets signal format honestly and add +38% CTR: How I Cut Build Time by 60% [Benchmark]

List / Number (numbers: +36% CTR — Conductor; odd numbers: +20% CTR — CMI)

• [Number] [Adjective] Ways to [Goal] / [Number] Mistakes to Avoid When [Task]

How-To (3× more B2B shares than other formats — BuzzSumo, 10M LinkedIn articles)

• How to [Task] Without [Painful Constraint] / How to [Task] Even If [Limiting Belief]

The "putaclic léger" zone

Slightly clickbait but honest — maximum tension with a real promise:

• Replace "won't believe" → "surprised to learn": same curiosity, honest register
• Add specificity: "I saved €500/month" beats "I saved money"
• Add a constraint: "without quitting your job" creates the gap
• Use "the real reason" or "what nobody tells you" — they signal a non-consensus view you must substantiate
• Add a bracket [Étude], [Template], [Benchmark] to signal payoff type

FR — putaclic carries stronger pejorative weight. Apply the 70/30 rule: 70% information, 30% mystery. Tension and contradiction work; faux drama ("J'arrête tout 😱") destroys credibility immediately in French professional contexts. Canonical FR structure: "Tout le monde vous dit de faire A. Voici pourquoi je fais B." Formulas saturated on LinkedIn FR in 2025+: "J'ai fait une erreur, voici ce que j'ai appris", "J'arrête [plateforme]".

Platform constraints

Anti-patterns for titles

• Generic superlatives without specificity: "The Ultimate Guide to X" — no gap
• "You won't believe..." / "Vous n'allez pas y croire..." — overused, signals hype
• Power words (Secret, Amazing, Ultimate) in SEO titles — signal hype, lower CTR
• Titles that give away the full answer — if the title answers the question, there is no reason to click
• Recycling saturated fingerprints: "I analyzed X things, here's what I found" — effective 2022–2023, saturating 2025–2026

Behavior for title requests

1. Confirm topic, audience, language, platform 2. Propose 3–5 titles across distinct formulas — not three variants of the same type 3. Include at minimum: one curiosity/gap, one contrarian or data, one list or how-to 4. Use the same output format as hooks: numbered options, wait for the pick 5. After the pick, note what the title commits the article's opening to

For the full 58-formula catalog (EN + FR) with data citations, see references/title-formulas.md.

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Reference files (load only when needed)

• references/anti-patterns.md: extended cliché and AI-tell list.
• references/anglophone-vs-francophone.md: register conventions, what does not translate.
• references/formulas.md: 30 reusable templates (EN + FR) for quick template-based hooks.
• references/title-formulas.md: 58-formula post title catalog (EN + FR), platform constraints table, data summary.

The catalog above is sufficient for most invocations. Load references only when the user asks for templates, deeper register guidance, or to sanity-check anti-patterns.

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Integration with other ghostwriting skills

If invoked from inside another skill's workflow (e.g., technical-article-writer reaches the hook step), produce options, ask, wait. Return the chosen hook to the parent skill for the rest of the article.

If the user has already drafted an opening and asks for "a better one", treat that draft as Option 0 (their current version) and propose 3 alternatives across different hooks. Do not silently discard their version.

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Worked example

User: "I'm writing a Substack piece on why most Go developers misuse generics. About 1500 words, intermediate Go devs, English."

Correct skill response:

## Hook options for: "Why Most Go Developers Misuse Generics"

**Option 1: Contrarian** (prediction-break)
A. Most articles on Go generics explain when to use them. This one explains when to delete them.
B. Generics were the most requested Go feature for a decade. Three years in, the people who pushed hardest for them are the ones telling you to stop using them.

**Option 2: Concrete detail** (sensory + specific)
A. samber/lo ships 87 generic helpers. Six of them account for 94 percent of the binary-size complaints. The other 81 are fine.
B. A function called `Map[T, U any]` looks innocent. Compile a project that imports it 40 times and your build time triples. Here is why.

**Option 3: Direct problem (PAS)** (reader-direct)
A. Your Go code compiles slower since you adopted generics. The cause is not what the linter is telling you.
B. If your team adopted generics last year and your build times doubled, you are not alone. The diagnosis is more boring than the fix.

Which? Reply with letter combination (e.g., "1B") or "more" for different techniques.

Then wait for the pick. Do not write the rest of the article until the user has chosen.

Anglophone vs Francophone Traditions

Two distinct lineages converge in modern article writing but the conventions remain different enough that literal translation of openings frequently fails. Use this reference whenever working in French or producing a bilingual hook set.

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The two traditions

Anglophone copywriting lineage. Claude Hopkins (_Scientific Advertising_, 1923), John Caples (_Tested Advertising Methods_, 1932), David Ogilvy, Eugene Schwartz (_Breakthrough Advertising_, 1966), Gary Halbert (_The Boron Letters_, 1984), Joseph Sugarman (_The Adweek Copywriting Handbook_), Bob Bly, then modern Substack writers (Housel, McCormick, Rachitsky, Doyle, Stratechery). Center of gravity is direct response.

Anglophone longform journalism lineage. New Journalism (Talese, Wolfe, Didion, Thompson), The New Yorker, The Atlantic, modern longform. Center of gravity is craft and narrative transportation.

Francophone tradition is split into two distinct schools that rarely cross-pollinate.

1. Journalistic school. CFJ, ESJ Lille. Yves Agnès, _Manuel de journalisme_; Benoit Grevisse, _Écriture journalistique_. Core vocabulary: _attaque_, _chapô_, _accroche_, _chute_, _pyramide inversée_, _5W_. CLEMI and Bondy Blog (Elsa Vigoureux) teach that _"l'attaque doit être palpable, habitée, elle doit attirer et captiver le lecteur."_

2. Modern copywriting school. Olivier Roland (mid-2000s, adapted from Steve Pavlina and Tim Ferriss), Jean Rivière in the same wave. Second wave: Sélim Niederhoffer (_Le Guide du copywriting_, Eyrolles 2021, 2e éd. Nov. 2025); Stéphane Truphème (Captain Marketing); Christopher Piton; Maud Alaves. This school largely adapts US direct response to French markets. Niederhoffer's "Super Structure" (17 blocks) is a French equivalent to Schwartz and Sugarman.

What works in English but not in French

What works in French but not in English

Slippery slide vs attaque journalistique

• Sugarman's slippery slide is _transactional_: every sentence exists to make the next read. Optimized for conversion. Each sentence has a job.
• L'attaque journalistique is _contractual_: the opening promises (story, angle), the _chute_ closes it. Optimized for completion. The opening sets terms.

For a French writer ghostwriting in English. Usual mistake: opening too slow, too descriptive. Sounds smart in French, evasive in English. Fix: lead with the finding, not the setup. Move scene-setting after the thesis.

For an English writer ghostwriting in French. Usual mistake: opening too transactional ("vous allez voir"). Sounds dynamic in English, commercial-vulgaire in French. Fix: replace "vous + promise" with concrete scene, specific fact, or contrarian claim.

Register quick-reference for ghostwriting

Hook Anti-Patterns

Patterns to never propose as candidate hooks. If any of these match a candidate you have drafted, rewrite or replace before presenting to the user.

The anti-patterns evolve. AI tells in particular shift roughly yearly as model defaults change.

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1. "In today's fast-paced world..."

Family includes "In an era of...", "Now more than ever", "À l'heure du tout-numérique", "À l'ère de l'IA", "Dans un monde où...". Zero information, fully generic, immediately disqualifies the writer. Cut entirely.

2. "Have you ever wondered...?" / "Vous êtes-vous déjà demandé...?"

The reader's honest answer is "no, why should I?". A question hook works only when the reader was already implicitly carrying the question. Bare "have you wondered" formulations assume curiosity that has not been activated.

3. The dictionary-definition opener (unsubverted)

Works only when immediately subverted (Tim Urban) or ironic. Played straight equals school essay. If your candidate starts "Productivity, defined as..." or "Selon le Larousse...", rewrite.

4. Throat-clearing meta openers

"In this article, I'll discuss...", "Today we'll look at...", "Dans cet article, nous allons voir...", "Avant de commencer, il est important de préciser que...". This is process documentation, not writing. Substitute the actual promise or scene for the agenda.

5. Generic statistics without source

"90% of people...", "Studies show...", "Les études montrent...", "8 personnes sur 10...". Either cite the specific study (year, sample size, source) or cut the claim. Vague stats signal made-up content.

6. The platitude quote

"As Einstein said...", "Comme disait Sénèque...". Almost always misattributed. The quoted maxims are already cognitively cached, so they trigger fluency without surprise. If you must open with a quote, use a specific one from a verifiable source plus your own disagreement or extension.

7. The apologetic preamble

"I'm not an expert, but...", "Je ne suis pas spécialiste mais...". Destroys authority pre-emptively. If the reader has to discount you in sentence one, why finish the article?

8. The rhetorical-question chain

Three questions in a row signals "I had no idea how to start." One question can work if it is the right question; three is a confession of confusion.

9. The "imagine" cliché

"Imagine waking up...", "Imaginez que...". Works only when the scene is vivid and specific (Tim Urban's "Imagine taking a time machine back to 1750"). The bare verb "imagine" without concrete sensory detail is now a near-universal AI tell.

10. LinkedIn-bro patterns dropped into articles

"Hot take:", "Unpopular opinion:", "Most people won't admit this, but...", "Voici la vérité que personne ne veut entendre...". These are social-media throat-clearing. In article position they read as desperate. They are increasingly anti-signals.

11. The corporate self-introduction

"At [Company], we believe...", "Chez [Entreprise], nous pensons...". Marketing-page voice in article position. Move company self-positioning to a footer or sidebar; do not let it eat the hook.

12. The vague time anchor

"Recently,...", "Récemment,...", "These past few years...". Either name the specific date, week, or event, or skip the time framing entirely. Vagueness in the opening signals vagueness in the thinking.

13. "You're not alone"

Empathy theater. The phrase is now associated with corporate-wellness content. Replace with the specific shared scene or specific shared frustration.

14. The double-meta

"Writing about writing is hard. But here's why I'm doing it anyway...". Self-referential Substack opening. Once charming, now exhausted. Just start.

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Current AI tells (rolling list, update yearly)

These phrases or patterns currently signal "this was written by or with an LLM with no humanizing pass". They are especially deadly in opening sentences because they prime the reader to read everything else as machine output.

• "In today's fast-paced world" (and any variation)
• "It's not just X, it's Y" (the formula construction, not the meaning)
• "Picture this:"
• "Imagine a world where..."
• "What if I told you..."
• "Whether you're a seasoned X or a curious newcomer..."
• "In the realm of..."
• "Navigating the landscape of..."
• "Unlock the power of..."
• "Dive into..."
• "Buckle up,"
• "Let's dive in"
• "Here's the kicker:"
• "At its core,"
• "It's worth noting that"
• "That said,"
• Em dash overuse in body prose (one per article is fine; one per paragraph is a tell)
• Tricolons ("X, Y, and Z") where the three items are near-synonyms
• "Crucially," "Notably," "Importantly," "Essentially," used as sentence openers
• French equivalents: "Dans un monde en constante évolution", "À l'ère du numérique", "Plongez dans...", "Découvrez comment...", "Il est crucial de...", "Notamment,...", "Par ailleurs,..."

Run candidate hooks through this list before presenting. If a candidate contains any of these, rewrite it.

If the user has a humanizer or humaniseur-fr skill installed, defer to those skills for a final pass after the user picks a hook.

30 Hook Formulas: EN and FR Templates

Each formula is a pattern, not a literal template. Adapt the wording to the user's voice. Use these when you need to move fast or when a tailored hook is not landing.

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F1. The Bare Contrarian

_"Most people think [X]. They're wrong. [Why]."_

• EN: "Most people think procrastination is a time-management problem. It's an emotion-regulation problem."
• FR: "Tout le monde pense que le copywriting, c'est de l'écriture. C'est de la psychologie."

F2. The Specific Anecdote

_"[Year]. [Person] did [thing]. [Hook]."_

• EN: "In 1965, Robert Lucas wrote a four-page paper that broke macroeconomics."
• FR: "Le 24 février 2018, Camille Polloni est entrée dans les locaux du Bondy Blog en sachant qu'elle était fichée illégalement par les services de renseignement."

F3. The Counted Stakes

_"[Surprising number] [unit] [action]. [Implication]."_

• EN: "Thirty-seven thousand Americans died in car accidents in 1955, six times today's rate adjusted for miles driven." (Housel, verbatim)
• FR: "Chaque mois, plus de 70 millions de nouveaux articles de blog sont publiés sur WordPress."

F4. The Two-Sentence Open Loop

_"[Scene without context]. [Question-creating detail]."_

• EN: "He pressed Send and waited. Forty-seven seconds later, the company was worth 4 billion dollars less."
• FR: "Il a appuyé sur 'Envoyer'. Quarante-sept secondes plus tard, sa boîte valait quatre milliards d'euros de moins."

F5. The Personal Confession

_"I [vulnerable thing]. [Twist that universalizes]."_

• EN: "I almost ghost-wrote this article. Then I realized that's exactly the problem."
• FR: "J'ai failli faire écrire cet article par ChatGPT. Puis j'ai compris que c'était exactement le problème."

F6. The Direct Problem (PAS)

_"You [pain]. [Worse than you think]. [Hint of solution]."_

• EN: "Your articles aren't read. The data says you lose 80% of readers by paragraph two. There's a fix, and it's not what you've been doing."
• FR: "Vos articles ne sont pas lus. 80% des lecteurs décrochent dès le deuxième paragraphe. Et la solution n'est pas celle que vous croyez."

F7. The Conditional Address

_"If you [situation], you've probably [bad assumption]. Here's what changes that."_

• EN: "If you write for a living, you've probably been taught to start with context. Don't."
• FR: "Si vous écrivez pour gagner votre vie, on vous a sûrement appris à commencer par le contexte. Ne le faites plus."

F8. The Definition Subversion

_"[Dictionary definition of X]. [Why it's wrong]."_

• EN: Tim Urban's "Why Procrastinators Procrastinate" opener.
• FR: "Copywriting (n.m.) : art d'écrire pour vendre. Définition fausse à 90%."

F9. The "Three Things" Setup

_"There are three [items] I keep coming back to. [Item 1]. [Item 2]. [Item 3]."_

• EN: "There are three sentences I've read this year that changed how I write. None were on Twitter."
• FR: "Trois phrases lues cette année ont changé ma façon d'écrire. Aucune ne venait de LinkedIn."

F10. The Quote + Disagreement

_"[Famous person] said '[quote]'. They were wrong."_

• EN: "Steve Jobs said people don't know what they want until you show it to them. For SaaS, this is exactly backwards."
• FR: "Henry Ford disait qu'on lui aurait demandé des chevaux plus rapides. Pour 90% des produits, c'est faux."

F11. The In Medias Res Scene

_"[Character], [sensory action], [setting] [past verb]."_

• EN: Talese verbatim.
• FR: "Devant son ordinateur, à trois heures du matin, Olivier Roland a relu sa première phrase pour la quatorzième fois."

F12. The Time-Anchored Provocation

_"In [year], [paradigm shift]. [Most haven't noticed]."_

• EN: "In 2022, the cost of writing a competent article dropped to zero. Most writers haven't noticed."
• FR: "En 2022, le coût de production d'un article correct est tombé à zéro. La plupart ne s'en sont pas aperçus."

F13. The Counterintuitive List

_"[Number] [things] [verb], and none of them are [obvious answer]."_

• EN: "Seven habits separate writers who get read from writers who don't. None involve writing every day."
• FR: "Sept habitudes séparent les rédacteurs lus des autres. Aucune n'implique d'écrire tous les jours."

F14. The Forbidden Opener

_"[Statement nobody says]. [Why we should]."_

• EN: "Most B2B articles are written by people who would not, themselves, finish them."
• FR: "La plupart des articles B2B sont écrits par des gens qui ne les liraient pas eux-mêmes."

F15. The Sensory Hook

_"The [unexpected sensory detail]. [Object revealed]."_

• EN: "The smell hit me first: vanilla, motor oil, and something burnt."
• FR: "L'odeur m'a frappé en premier : vanille, huile de moteur, quelque chose de brûlé."

F16. The Stat + Question

_"[Stat]. [Question it raises]."_

• EN: "There are 13 divorces among the 10 richest men in the world. What does it actually take to stay married?"
• FR: "Treize divorces parmi les dix hommes les plus riches du monde. Qu'est-ce qui sauve un couple ?"

F17. The Self-Aware Meta

_"I almost didn't [publish] this. [Reason]. [Twist]."_

Now overused. Use sparingly and only with a genuine reason.

F18. The Geography Anchor

_"[Place], [moment]. [Person doing thing]."_

• EN: "Palo Alto, 1976. Two men in a garage are trying to figure out how to sell their first computer."
• FR: "Bondy, novembre 2005. Trois journalistes installent un blog dans un appartement de la cité Blanqui."

F19. The Definition Reframe

_"[X] isn't [common def]. It's [your reframe]."_

• EN: "Procrastination isn't laziness. It's a fight between two parts of your brain."
• FR: "La procrastination n'est pas de la paresse. C'est un combat entre deux parties de ton cerveau."

F20. The Cost of Inaction

_"If you don't [action], you'll [cost]."_

• EN: "If you don't fix your opening sentence, the rest of your post doesn't matter."
• FR: "Si tu ne soignes pas ta phrase d'accroche, le reste de l'article ne sert à rien."

F21. The "How I Was Wrong" Confession

_"For [duration] I believed [assumption]. Then [event]."_

• EN: "For ten years, I believed long openings built trust. Then I A/B-tested it and lost."
• FR: "Pendant dix ans, j'ai cru qu'une introduction longue construisait la confiance. Puis j'ai fait un A/B test et j'ai perdu."

F22. The "Two Types" Setup

_"There are two kinds of [X]. The difference is [unexpected]."_

• EN: "There are two kinds of writers: those who edit and those who don't. The second group rarely gets read."
• FR: "Il y a deux types de rédacteurs : ceux qui relisent et ceux qui ne relisent pas. Les seconds sont rarement lus."

F23. The Ratio Opener

_"[Specific ratio]. That's [implication]."_

• EN: "1 in 5 of your readers will finish this paragraph. That's the average for paid B2B content."
• FR: "1 lecteur sur 5 finira ce paragraphe. C'est la moyenne pour les articles B2B."

F24. The Negation

_"This is not a [framing]. It's [unexpected framing]."_

• EN: "This is not an article about productivity. It's an article about identity."
• FR: "Ce n'est pas un article sur la productivité. C'est un article sur l'identité."

F25. The "What Nobody Tells You"

_"Nobody tells you that [counterintuitive truth]."_

Now overused on LinkedIn. Use with caution.

• EN: "Nobody tells you that the hardest part of writing is deleting."
• FR: "Personne ne te dit que la partie la plus dure de l'écriture, c'est de supprimer."

F26. The Direct Authority Borrow

_"[Authority] [specific action]. [What it means]."_

• EN: "Eugene Schwartz said your headline has only one job: to compel the reader to read the second sentence."
• FR: "Eugene Schwartz disait que le seul rôle d'un titre, c'est de faire lire la première phrase. Il avait raison, et c'est pire qu'il ne le pensait."

F27. The "Why Now" Hook

_"[Recent event] changed [domain]. [What most miss]."_

• EN: "GPT-4 changed how articles get written. Most writers are optimizing for the wrong thing."
• FR: "ChatGPT a changé la façon d'écrire. La plupart optimisent pour la mauvaise chose."

F28. The Object as Character

_"[Object] on [place]. [Meaning]."_

• EN: "A single Post-It note on my monitor reads: 'Cut the first paragraph.'"
• FR: "Un Post-it collé sur mon écran : 'Supprime ton premier paragraphe.'"

F29. The Reversed Causation

_"We think [A causes B]. The reverse is true."_

• EN: "We think clarity creates good thinking. Actually, good thinking creates clarity."
• FR: "On pense que la clarté produit la bonne pensée. C'est l'inverse."

F30. The Long-Tail Specific

_"On [specific date], [person] [trivial action]. It would later [huge consequence]."_

• EN: "On a Tuesday morning in March 1976, a 21-year-old college dropout sold his Volkswagen Bus for 1,500 dollars. He used the money to build the first Apple computer."
• FR: "Un mardi matin de mars 1976, un étudiant de 21 ans en rupture d'études a vendu son van Volkswagen 1 500 dollars. Avec cet argent, il a construit le premier Apple."

Post Title Formula Catalog

Full reference for the copywriting-hooks skill. Load when the user needs a deep formula dive or asks for title templates.

EN Formula Catalog

Curiosity / Gap

1. The [Adjective] Truth About [Topic] — "The Counterintuitive Truth About Go Generics" 2. What [Group] Won't Tell You About [Topic] — "What Recruiters Won't Tell You About Salary Negotiation" 3. The Real Reason [Phenomenon] — "The Real Reason Most Content Gets Zero Shares" 4. [Number] Things Every [Audience] Gets Wrong About [Topic] 5. Little-Known Ways to [Goal] 6. The [Adjective] Secret to [Outcome] — "The Counterintuitive Secret to Shorter Meetings" 7. What [Number] [Data Source] Revealed About [Topic] — "What 4,000 Developers Revealed About Code Review" 8. The Hidden Cost of [Common Practice]

Contrarian / Negative

9. Stop [Common Practice]. Here's Why. 10. Why [Common Belief] Is Wrong 11. [Number] [Myths/Mistakes] That Are Killing Your [Result] 12. Never [Common Practice] Again 13. The Worst [Thing] You Can Do for [Goal] 14. I Was Wrong About [Topic]

Data: Negative superlatives achieve 63% higher CTR than positive superlatives (Outbrain, 65,000 titles). Each additional negative word increases CTR by 2.3% (Robertson et al., _Nature Human Behaviour_ 2023, 22,743 RCTs).

Specificity / Data

15. I Analyzed [Number] [Things] — Here's What I Found 16. What [Number] Studies Say About [Topic] 17. [Number]% of [Group] Does This Wrong — Are You One of Them? 18. [Number] [Things] Across [Time Period]: What Changed 19. How [Company/Person] Achieved [Specific Result] in [Timeframe]

Data: Numbers in titles improve CTR by ~36% over no-number titles (Conductor research).

List / Numbered

20. [Number] [Adjective] Ways to [Goal] — "7 Proven Ways to Double Your Open Rate" 21. [Number] Mistakes to Avoid When [Task] 22. [Number] Things Every [Audience] Should Know About [Topic] 23. [Number] [Things] That Will [Emotional Outcome] 24. The [Number]-Step [Process] for [Goal]

Data: Odd numbers: +20% CTR over even numbers (CMI). Best-performing numbers B2C: 10, 5, 15, 7, 20. B2B LinkedIn: 5, 10, 3, 7.

How-To (strongest for B2B / LinkedIn)

25. How to [Task] Without [Painful Constraint] 26. How to [Task] Even If [Limiting Belief] 27. How to [Task] in [Timeframe] 28. How to [Task] Like [World-Class Example] 29. How to Turn [Problem] Into [Benefit]

Data: How-to posts average 3× more shares in B2B LinkedIn contexts than other formats (BuzzSumo, 10M LinkedIn articles).

Social Proof / Authority

30. Who Else Wants [Desirable Outcome]? 31. Here Is a Method That Is Helping [Audience] to [Outcome] 32. What [Experts/Role] Do That Most [Audience] Don't

Transformation / Before-After

33. How I Went From [Bad State] to [Good State] in [Timeframe] 34. From [Problem] to [Solution]: What I Learned 35. Give Me [Short Time] and I'll Give You [Outcome]

Targeting / Tribal

36. For People Who [Condition or Identity] 37. If You're [Audience Type], Read This Before [Action] 38. [Number] Things Only [Specific Group] Will Understand

Resource / Definitive

39. The Ultimate Guide to [Topic] _(performs well in search; weaker in social feed)_ 40. [Topic]: Everything You Need to Know 41. The Complete [Checklist/Playbook] for [Goal]

Format-Bracket Hybrids (+38% CTR — HubSpot/Outbrain, 3.3M headlines)

42. [Normal Title] [Benchmark] 43. [Normal Title] [Interview] 44. [Normal Title] [Template] 45. [Normal Title] [Infographic] 46. [Normal Title] [Case Study]

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FR Formula Catalog

Apply the 70/30 rule: 70% information, 30% mystery. Tension and contradiction outperform urgency in French professional contexts. The term _putaclic_ carries strong pejorative weight — faux drama ("J'arrête tout 😱") is immediately flagged.

47. Comment [Verbe] sans [Contrainte/Douleur] — "Comment publier chaque jour sans s'épuiser" 48. Comment [Verbe] même si [Croyance limitante] — "Comment négocier même si tu détestes les conflits" 49. Pourquoi [Croyance commune] ne fonctionne pas 50. [Chiffre] raisons pour lesquelles [Phénomène] 51. Tout le monde vous dit de faire [A]. Voici pourquoi je fais [B]. 52. La vérité derrière [Phénomène ou pratique] 53. [Chiffre] erreurs que font les [Audience]... et comment les éviter 54. Le pire conseil que l'on donne à [Audience] — contrarian via negative superlative 55. Ce que personne ne vous dit sur [Sujet] 56. [Chiffre]% des [Audience] font ça. Est-ce que tu en fais partie ? 57. J'ai analysé [Chiffre] [Choses]. Voici ce que j'ai trouvé. 58. [Action normale] [Chiffre de résultat concret] [Contrainte honnête] — "J'ai réduit mon temps de build de 60% sans changer d'infra"

Formulas à éviter en 2025+ sur LinkedIn FR (saturées, pénalisées par l'algorithme) :

>

- "J'ai fait une erreur, voici ce que j'ai appris"

- "Ce que j'ai appris de mon plus gros échec"

- Tout ce qui commence par "J'arrête..." sans vraiment partir

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Platform Constraints Reference

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Data Summary