If your long-form content isn’t getting clicks or growing your following each week, it usually means one thing:
Your hook writing needs work.
It’s a painful thing to put one full week, along with all your intellectual resources, into a 2000 word personal essay, X article, or Substack newsletter, only to have nobody care about it. It almost seems unfair.
But there’s only so much attention to go around. I could be doing 99 other things than writing this sentence right now.
Which means you need to understand how to capture and maintain attention if you want to become a successful writer (you literally have to attract an audience).
This guide will be a little different than you’d expected.
This is specific to written content (not visual).
Which should excite you a lot.
All you need is words.
And your long form writing platform of choice (I recommend Substack, I’m still new to/experimenting with X). Don’t forget a keyboard, your brain, and the right profound ideas to guide you.
I want to give you as many hook writing principles as I can. No templates, or “50 proven hooks to steal” that stop working once everybody starts using them, which makes them lose their punch and effectiveness for attracting readers, and most importantly, keeping them.
With this writing guide, you will learn to write opening sections that capture attention and keep people reading toward the very end.
First, we will define what a hook actually is and what it does neurologically. Then, I’ll break down a recent high performing hook of mine, give you some live examples, and a hook writing cheat sheet at the bottom of this guide to help you take action on all of this.
No matter the topic, all of this still works.
I’ve written close to 100 newsletters, and the question I get asked more than anything else is how I write hooks that are so unlike anything else people have read.
This guide will show you.
What is a hook?
This is my definition of a hook:
It’s the first section of your long form post. The first 300 words or so, including the first 1-3 lines (the first 3-5 seconds).
A hook must achieve two things:
Capture attention
Maintain it once it’s captured
But how does this actually happen inside your reader’s brain? Well, human beings have a reflex known as the “what is it” reflex. Also called the orienting response. For example, if you were to see a bush shaking in the wild 1000 years ago…
What is it?
A fluffy white bunny rabbit munching on a nutritious carrot?
A starving tiger that would love to bite your face off?
This response is rooted deep in human psychology. It has two phases:
Stop what you’re currently doing (scrolling)
Look at the thing that made you stop (the title/thumbnail, or “packaging” as its called)
Every piece of content you scroll through online is trying to trigger this response.
Short form (X tweets, Substack notes).
Medium form (Instagram carousels, X threads).
Long form (Substack newsletters, X articles, YouTube videos, podcasts).
Mechanisms like pattern interrupts, curiosity loops, and visual cues are vehicles for triggering this response deep inside your brain.
But here’s the thing though.
Mechanisms specific to capturing attention and maintaining it, they both affect two different cognitive systems.
How so?
Novelty captures attention. But it doesn’t maintain it very well.
All the hook advice you see online teaches how to capture the reader’s attention in the first 3-5 seconds… but what about the remaining 300 words? The remaining 25 seconds?
This is where habituation comes in. Which states that any stimulus repeated enough times becomes less exciting to the brain. Our brains adapt, basically. Think having that first square of chocolate, having not eaten any in a week, compared to the last bite. It never hits the same (tho we all wish it did).
This is why I won’t be giving you any “proven hook formulas” because they’ll eventually stop working. Human psychology won’t, however. So I’m here to teach you the timeless stuff you can apply to any topic you’re writing about.
It happens to me a lot, where I’ll be reading a Substack article that sparked my interest and my brain will start to wander. I will start skimming. It’s like I’m reading mindlessly, and my eyes are moving but my brain is elsewhere?
Yeah.
Your readers will do this too if your hook isn’t following the “what is it” reflex correctly.
When you write a hook section, please make sure your first 1-3 lines capture attention, and that the rest of the section maintains it.
I like to think of a hook as beginning a shift from how everyone views the topic/problem/title you are writing about to a more novel perspective on it.
Capture stops the reader from scrolling.
Maintain starts the perspective shift that runs through the rest of your long form piece.
Knowing what a hook does, then, leads us onto the question of what principles let you write one for any topic.
Let’s explore that now.
You need principles (not formulas, frameworks, or templates)
A formula tells you what to write.
A principle tells you why something works so you can write something that’s novel, impactful, and will inspire other people to copy you.
Which makes you an authority (you will always stay at number 2 if you keep copying the person at number 1).
You might have read this idea before. You know, where you learn from lots of different people and information sources, trying lots of techniques and methods until you synthesize them, or they merge into a unique voice or process that’s your own?
Same applies here.
Principles that YOU layer and combine in way that is unique to you, will always outperform rigid structures and templates that stop working once everyone copies them.
I realized long ago that my highest performing long form posts all started with pattern interrupts and opened a curiosity loop within the first 1-3 lines. So instead of copying the structures of those sentences, I started emulating the mechanisms. I’d write a pattern interrupt as my first line, maybe write a second one for the second line, or open a loop, or write a visual cue, or I’d start with a loop… and so on.
You can read anything I’ve written in the past 3 months.
I guarantee that I am using at least some combination of those mechanisms as my first three lines.
Written hooks only have words. Which is why you can’t really steal a hook format from a YouTube video and expect it to work just as well on paper. Because it’s a lot more than just paper usually (visuals, audio, speech, graphics, tone of voice etc.)
Back to habituation:
When everyone copies the same hook writing formula (or any writing formula for that matter) the reader’s brain stops responding. It becomes adapted to it. There’s no novelty. The first person using the formula got results… cool. And then the 100th person afterwards will get nothing.
This is why I don’t like using AI to write for me. It’s trained on common data patterns (formulas) and it writes based on past data that has proven to work.
“it’s not an x problem, it’s a y problem.”
Fuck off. Politely.
Do you see the issue here?
Nobody likes reading that sentence structure anymore. People even jokingly call out the likes of George Orwell and Fyodor Dostoevsky online for “using AI” because of that sentence structure!
When you sit down to write a hook, think in terms of what mechanisms might you use but in your own novel way.
Not template structures.
Sorry if this felt intuitive to you already. I just wanted to press on it before I explore the mechanisms fully.
Because when you know why a pattern interrupt works, you can create one that nobody else has seen before.
More on that now.
How to write the first 300 words of any long form post
Every good hook layers multiple attention mechanisms at any one time.
There are two types of mechanism specifically.
Capture Mechanisms (Interrupts Attention)
Pattern Interrupt - Break expectations of what comes next
Curiosity Loop - Withholds information temporarily
Visual Cue - How you writing looks on the page affects how it feels to read (a massive block of text vs a nice mix of short sentences, medium and longer sentences, and sentence clusters)
Bold Claim - A statement of conviction and confidence that forces the reader to agree or disagree
Stakes - Makes the reader feel what they lose by not reading on
Specificity - Numbers, exact scenarios/examples/situations (details stop scrolling faster than vague claims!)
Direct Questions - Forces the reader to think and answer to themselves
Maintain Mechanisms (Keeps Pulling You Forward)
Open Loop - An unresolved question/piece of information being running across an entire section/piece, promising some sort of payoff
Pacing - Short sentences create urgency whereas long sentences create depth (vary them!)
Story/Anecdote - The reader starts experiencing as opposed to processing boring old information you could find anywhere on ChatGPT
Repetition - Deliberately reusing words or sentence structures conveys intentionality and importance
Writing In The Second Person “You” - Sounds like you are addressing your reader directly
Transitions - A question, loop, or bridging sentence that carries into the next section of your long form piece
There is no set order, here.
The goal is to be capable and skilled at layering these mechanisms… in whatever way you want! Get creative with this.
For me, I usually start with writing my hook section. I would probably advise against this. But I love the process of layering all those mechanisms to create my own string of them, as opposed to writing from templates and such. I also like writing the hook without fully knowing what my final argument is going to look like. Which means I’ll usually come back and flesh it out more at the end.
I will give you some broad principles to consider however:
Be bold and clear, not bold and clever - Being specific will qualify the reader. They’ll know if your long form post is for them or not.
Start with the problem - I like to start by exploring how most people view the problem, before I provide my own novel perspective on it, and then giving action steps for implementing that perspective into your life. Problem → solution is all this is. Your hook should make the problem deathly clear and specific.
Experiment, experiment, experiment - Write one long form post each week so you can get lots of data. Feedback. What posts have higher engagement? Are there any patterns across your highest performing long form posts? Always do more and more before trying to improve or doing something new.
You should read back your first 300 words (especially the first 1-3 lines) as if you are meeting yourself for the first time. You’re scrolling on a random Tuesday, waiting in line for an overpriced coffee, looking for something to cure your boredom temporarily.
If what you’ve written wouldn’t grab your attention then, rewrite it until it does.
When editing your hook section (I learned this as a filmmaker in my past life from video editing): if in doubt, cut it tighter. And if you think it’s tight enough, cut 20% more.
You can use AI to help you stress test for the mechanisms objectively. By that, I mean have you included them yes/no. Leave craft, voice, and style to your own taste (are the mechanisms present as opposed to how do they sound if they are present).
The cheat sheet at the bottom of this guide lists every mechanism for quick reference while you write.
Example (full hook breakdown)
Here’s the opening section we’re breaking down.
Read it first by clicking that link (Substack). Then come back here and see what’s happening at the mechanism level.
Each mechanism has been labelled for you. Just so you can physically see how I think of writing a hook section and opening lines, on a piece that performed very well on Substack and YouTube.
Reading about mechanisms is nice, but seeing them layered across actual pieces of writing is how you learn to recognize them in your own writing and in others’.
As you read through the labels, pay attention to how multiple mechanisms can layer or stack on single sentences. Can you notice where the hook shifts from capturing attention (at the start) to pulling you forward (starting at “Most people don’t read…”)
Opening section of How To Live A Deeply Intellectual Life:
image of books now being summarized by AI, people losing the ability to think (pattern interrupt, visual cue)
Safe to say things are getting serious. (pattern interrupt, curiosity loop)
I don’t mean to scaremonger saying this, but. (curiosity loop, visual cue)
We are losing the ability to stretch our minds on a collective level. (stakes, bold claim)
This absolutely should frighten you. (stakes, second person “you”)
Most people don’t read books anymore. (stakes, repetition)
Most people would rather have a Wikipedia article summarized for them. (stakes, repetition, specificity)
Most people would rather let a phone tear their focus in 100 different directions within five minutes of waking up… than to enjoy the bliss of that first golden hour of being awake. (stakes, repetition, specificity, visual cue)
And most people think they’re still thinking. (pattern interrupt, repetition, stakes)
Just know I say… most people… as a signal of hope. (pattern interrupt, curiosity loop)
(image of a stickman carrying books into a pile of them lit on fire) (visual cue, pattern interrupt)
I never wanted to be a writer. (pattern interrupt, curiosity loop)
Which I’m happy is no longer the case. I just turned 23, and I’m sitting here at 11:24am, sipping my first americano of the day, with documents full of profound ideas, and bullet point outlines, scattered across tabs on the monitor to my left. (story/anecdote, specificity, visual cue)
Since I was a teenager, I’ve always had a thirst for profound ideas across old books and YouTube video essays. I would spend every spare second of thinking time building my second brain, anytime I wasn’t doing maths homework or finishing my undergrad thesis. (story/anecdote, specificity, social proof)
I’ve always had a strong desire to be a deeply intellectual person. More importantly, I’ve always wanted to live like one. (story/anecdote, pacing)
To spend my days reading. (pacing, repetition)
To spend my days thinking. (pacing, repetition)
Writing, and creating solutions to problems that might help me suffer less on a day to day basis. (pacing, repetition)
I used to view writing as a torture method that was tedious and draining to my brain. And school has a big effect on why most people still think this. (story/anecdote, stakes)
Those same people have never used writing to stretch their mind beyond what they believe, simply to test if they should still be believing in it. (pattern interrupt, bold claim)
This essay is about regaining what our generation is starting to lose. (open loop, stakes, promise)
I have 2 profound ideas to share with you, and a plan you can start today, for living a life for maximizing your intellectual capabilities. (open loop, promise, plan, second person “you”)
A deeply intellectual way of life. (pacing)
It’s our responsibility as the hinge generation to not lose our intellectual faculties. (stakes, bold claim)
Who knows what “geniuses” will be running the world that our kids will live in. (stakes, curiosity loop)
You’ll have to think with this one. (direct question, second person “you”, curiosity loop)
But don’t worry, we’ll think through it together. (pattern interrupt)
You might be wondering:
“But Craig, what about MY topics I want to write about?”
Don’t worry friend.
I got you!
3 live examples (writing hooks for ANY topic)
With the breakdown above showing how the mechanisms/principles can work across an entire hook section, now I’ll show you how they might transfer to completely different topics.
You’ve seen what a full section looks like, so for brevity’s sake, I’ll just do the first few lines for each topic. Specifically for capturing attention.
Topic 1: Why most people’s note taking is a waste of time
Most of your learning is fucking pointless. (pattern interrupt, bold claim)
And everything you think is making you smarter, is actively holding you back. (stakes, curiosity loop)
Nobody tells you highlighting books is a waste of time. (pattern interrupt, bold claim, stakes)
Writing 70,000 words of notes in your second brain only to let them gather dust, never to be seen again. (specificity, visual cue, stakes)
Podcasts on walks, or while driving to work in the morning, that go in one ear and out the other. (specificity, visual cue)
It’s all mental masturbation making your ego happy. (pattern interrupt, bold claim)
Here’s what I think actually works. (curiosity loop, open loop)
(this is the actual opening to this piece, which did extremely well)
Topic 2: You don’t need more discipline, you need clarity
You should declare all out war against any and all vagueness in your life. (pattern interrupt, bold claim, second person “you”)
I’ll tell you a story. (curiosity loop)
I was super ambitious as a kid. (story/anecdote)
I’d spend every free second outside of homework learning about anything that sparked my interest. (story/anecdote, specificity)
Learning. Writing. Deep thinkers who spent a lifetime thinking about profound ideas. (pacing, repetition)
And I don’t know why we just aren’t told this, but. (curiosity loop, visual cue)
Here goes: (curiosity loop, pacing)
All of your life problems exist in the vague. (pattern interrupt, bold claim, second person “you”)
Topic 3: The internet is making you less creative, not more
Sorry. (pattern interrupt, pacing)
But all that technology you’re using probably isn’t going to make you any smarter. (bold claim, stakes)
Not as much as you think it is, at least. (second person “you,” stakes)
Creativity is a funny thing. (curiosity loop)
Parents and teachers love telling us that “everybody is creative.” (stakes, specificity)
But it’s actually a blatant fucking lie. (pattern interrupt, bold claim)
Here’s the thing about creativity, right. (curiosity loop)
Are these perfect?
God no. They’re first drafts I vomited out. I have little to no idea where these sections might go, or what I’m setting up with each of those (in terms of a payoff at the end of each piece).
But it’s proof that the principles work if you can get creative and really think about applying them yourself.
I’ve been testing out this hook writing cheat sheet for a while now, and it’s quite literally all you will ever need for writing hooks that leave readers stunned.
You can use it as a job aid (to have open while you write) and a checklist for editing hooks yourself. Or you can hand the entire document to Claude, and ask it to run the checklist for you, or use the prompt at the bottom for brainstorming, stress testing, and refining what you do have.
How you use the cheat sheet is up to you.
I’ve included it as a PDF download too, or you can copy and paste it directly from this guide.
Use this cheat sheet
The PDF download:
