Retention Hooks

---
name: retention-hooks
description: Keep a short video watched to the end with open loops - a hook that opens a question in the first seconds, an intensifier, a rehook at the middle and a payoff that closes them, whether the lines come from the user's footage or are written for a voice or the screen. Use when ordering the moments of a short cut from talking footage, or writing the lines a short puts on screen or in a voice.
user-invocable: false
---

# Story loops

Hook, body and payoff tell you where things go. They do not keep anyone watching. What keeps a
viewer is an **open loop**: a question the video has raised and not yet answered. A short holds as
long as one loop is open, and sags wherever none is.

A loop is two moments: the line that **opens** a question and the later one that **closes** it.
Never open a loop the video cannot close, and never close one before the next is open.
A serial
episode's exit question follows drama-series-writing instead.

## The three loops

| Loop | Opens | Where | It works when |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Hook** | the first question: a result, a contrast, a problem, a claim the viewer wants proved | in the first 2 s | the viewer can say what they are waiting to find out |
| **Intensifier** | the same question, sharper: a stake, a number, a "and it gets stranger", the reason it is harder than it looks | before 15 s, and inside the first quarter of a short under 60 s | it builds on the hook's question instead of starting another |
| **Rehook** | a new question, just as the first ones start to fade | near the middle, from 35% to 60% of the length | it is new: a second problem, a twist, the part the viewer did not expect, never the hook said again |

The **payoff** closes the hook's loop, at or near the end. The rehook's loop closes before or with
it. The serial exit question above may remain open.

Scale them to the length:

- **Under 20 s:** the hook and the intensifier. There is no middle to sag; the payoff comes at once.
- **20–30 s:** all three when the material has a second question; otherwise the hook and the
  intensifier, and say so.
- **Over 30 s:** all three. Without a rehook the middle loses the viewer.

## Choosing them from footage

When the lines come from what people said (a reel, a short, highlights), the loops are chosen, not
written. From the pool of moments:

- **Hook:** the sentence that raises the question the rest answers: a surprising result, a strong
  claim, a problem said plainly. A moment the watch rated `hook` is a candidate; it must still open
  a question, not just sound strong.
- **Intensifier:** a sentence right after it that raises the stakes of the same question.
- **Rehook:** a sentence that turns: "but", "except", "what nobody tells you", a second problem.
  Place it at the middle even when the speaker said it earlier, as long as it stands on its own:
  a cold reader of the heard script says whether it does, not you (the speech-aware-cutting skill).
- **Payoff:** the sentence that answers the hook. **Never use the payoff as the hook**: it closes
  the loop before it opens. Lead with the question, end with the answer.

Clean sentence edges still come first. A loop never justifies a clip cut mid-sentence.

## Writing them

When the lines are written, for the screen or for a voice:

- **Hook:** show the result and hold back how it was made, so the rest of the video answers
  "how?".
- **Intensifier:** the first line after the hook makes the question sharper, with a stake.
- **Rehook:** the line nearest the middle opens what comes next instead of describing what was:
  the harder request, the step the viewer did not expect.
- **Payoff:** the last result answers the hook. The call to action comes after it, never instead.

The writing's own rules still hold: no hype words, nothing the footage does not show.

## The hook

The hook buys the next two seconds. A viewer stops for something they already feel, never for a
product. Four rules, each one checkable on the hook's frames and words:

1. **Open on a moment or a problem the viewer already feels.** A frustration they have had, a
   result in the middle of happening, a "before" they recognise. Never a product shot, or a
   character posed and lit, with a slogan over it: the product comes in as the answer, once the
   viewer has a reason to want one. Giving that reason is the hook's job. If a viewer could not say
   why they should care, it is not a hook yet.
2. **The words sound like a creator talking.** "I" or "you", in plain words, the way you would
   tell a friend: "every shot in my film was a wide". Never a tagline: no two short lines that
   mirror each other ("Rough notes in. A pitch deck out."), no claim about the product, and no brand
   name in the first second. Read the line aloud, and rewrite it if it sounds like a commercial.
   Sometimes use no words at all. When the picture alone raises the question, let it.
3. **One promise.** The picture, the words and the payoff promise the same thing. Before
   building, write it as one sentence: "The viewer sees ___, reads ___, and by the end gets ___."
   If one blank pulls a different way, change it. The payoff keeps the promise exactly; a hook
   that promises more than the video shows is bait.
4. **Native, not produced.** It looks like something a person posted: the real screen, the real
   footage, framed the way a phone frames it. Save the polish for the result.

Choose the opener from what the material holds:

| Opener | It opens on | For example |
|---|---|---|
| **The problem** | a frustration the viewer has had, in their own words | "my AI film had zero close-ups" |
| **POV** | the viewer's own situation, in the second person | "POV: your storyboard is all wide shots" |
| **In the middle** | the result happening, before any setup, which lands within the next 3 seconds | the shot list rewriting itself |
| **Before and after** | the two states, joined by a hard cut | the wide still, then the close-up |
| **The surprise** | something the viewer did not expect to see here | a man in his fifties vaulting a wall for his coffee |

### Ad tells

Any one of these makes a short read as an ad, and the viewer scrolls past it:

- the first frame is a product, or a character posed and lit like a commercial, with words over it;
- a slogan: two lines that mirror each other, a benefit claim, a rhyme;
- a brand, a logo or an app name in the first second;
- a feature named before the viewer has a reason to want it ("New:", "Introducing");
- words that grade the product (amazing, effortless, game-changing), a "!", or a price;
- a call to action before the payoff, or one that interrupts it;
- a voice that announces from a script instead of telling;
- studio polish on the opener: perfect light, a seamless backdrop, a staged lifestyle shot;
- more to read in the first 2 s than one short line.

**The ending loops back.** When the video ends without a call to action, its last frame leads into
the first, for instance by ending on the problem the hook opened on, now solved. A replay then
reads as one continuous video.
A serial exit follows drama-series-writing instead.

The quality-review skill's cold watch tests a hook on the built draft: its first two pieces (to
3 s) say whether strangers who know nothing of the video keep watching.

## Check the loops

Before the plan goes to the user, list each loop in one line: what it opens, the second it opens,
the second it closes. Then read it back:

- Does a loop open in the first 2 s?
- Is some loop open at every second until the payoff, or is there a stretch where the viewer has
  nothing left to wait for?
- Does every loop close? A serial exit question may stay open.
- Does the hook break none of the four rules above, and use none of the ad tells?

A missing loop is a note, not a block: when the material has no second question, build without a
rehook and say so in one line.