Write Hooks

---
name: write-hooks
description: Write the hook — the line right after the headline that wins the read (the first line of body, the second line of an ad, the opening sentence of an email). TRIGGER when the headline is set and the line that pays it off is needed, or when a gate found a hook failure. DO NOT TRIGGER for the headline itself (write-headlines), the longer opening passage that earns the whole read (write-leads), or a section-title chain (the page skills own their titles).
---

# Write Hooks

One Process: the headline wins the glance, the hook wins the read — it pays the headline's promise off with one concrete, sharpening detail and never restates it.

Write under the deliverable's Reader.md and the parent piece, and the product's Voice.md, which names the WHO speaking; the hook speaks in that voice to Reader.md's Audience — the named buyer, never a generic reader. Never state an offer mechanism the owner has not approved.

## 1. Sharpen the tension, never echo the headline

The hook is the reader's most attentive second. A hook that repeats the headline in new words wastes it. Add one concrete, specific detail or one turn of the screw that makes the headline's claim land harder.
Example:
> Headline: "Your trials don't convert because your onboarding is one email."
> Weak (echo): "Onboarding is really important for trial conversion."
> Strong (sharpen): "The average SaaS sends a welcome email, then goes silent for 13 days — exactly the window where 60% of trials decide."

### Sharpen on the specific the reader's stage is ready for
Reader.md names the awareness stage, and the stage picks which specific pays the headline off: problem-aware sharpens the pain and its cost, solution-aware sharpens the mechanism, product-aware sharpens the proof or the edge, most-aware sharpens the term or the reason to act now. The hook deepens the headline's argument at the reader's stage, never one a stage behind or ahead.

## 2. Pay off with a specific, real detail

### Carry one concrete fact, not a second claim
The hook delivers the sharpest specific the parent piece backs — a number, a moment, a named consequence. It does not open a new argument; it deepens the one the headline made.

### Never invent the detail
The number, moment, or consequence traces to a product fact or a graded source (check-claims gates this). A hook built on a fabricated specific torches the headline above it.

## 3. Hold the line bar

Fifth-grade words, one read. No metaphors, no metaphorical verbs. Be specific. Never narrate the reader — no "you"-assertion of what they do, have, or feel; reference the reader only through a first-person carried question, a subordinate time clause of visit-proven behavior, a generic subject, or the approved possessives. Punctuate for consumption, not grammar.

Verification: the hook shares no core wording with the headline, carries one specific the parent piece backs, and reads aloud as a person talking.