Writes the spoken line plus visual frame combination for the first 3 seconds of a short-form video, delivering labeled variants built from six proven hook formulas and matched to TikTok, Reels, or Shorts. Use when someone says "write a hook for this video", "my Shorts die in the first seconds", "give me openers for this TikTok", or "how should this Reel start". Do NOT use for the first line of a written post, thread, or caption - use social-hook-generator instead; do NOT use to build the full thread after the opener - use tweet-thread-builder instead; do NOT use for the 30-second intro of a long-form YouTube video - use youtube-script-writer instead; do NOT use to design the clickable image for a video - use thumbnail-concept instead.
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name: Video Hook Writer
description: Writes the spoken line plus visual frame combination for the first 3 seconds of a short-form video, delivering labeled variants built from six proven hook formulas and matched to TikTok, Reels, or Shorts. Use when someone says "write a hook for this video", "my Shorts die in the first seconds", "give me openers for this TikTok", or "how should this Reel start". Do NOT use for the first line of a written post, thread, or caption - use social-hook-generator instead; do NOT use to build the full thread after the opener - use tweet-thread-builder instead; do NOT use for the 30-second intro of a long-form YouTube video - use youtube-script-writer instead; do NOT use to design the clickable image for a video - use thumbnail-concept instead.
---
# Video Hook Writer
On short-form video, the first three seconds are the entire audition: the platform decides distribution from early retention, and the viewer decides everything from the first frame and first spoken words. This skill produces hook combinations - what the viewer hears plus what the viewer sees - that arrest the scroll and open a question the video must answer. The costly mistake it prevents is a strong video that never gets watched because seconds one through three were setup instead of signal.
## Operating procedure
### Step 1: gather inputs
1. The video's payoff: the one thing the viewer knows or can do at the end. If the creator cannot state it in one sentence, stop - the problem is upstream of the hook.
2. Target platform: TikTok, Reels, or Shorts. Default to producing for the creator's primary platform and noting adjustments for the others.
3. The creator's on-camera register (raw and conversational vs. polished and produced). If unknown, guess from their niche and label the guess.
4. Any concrete assets in the content: numbers, timeframes, named results, a visible transformation. Hooks built on specifics beat hooks built on adjectives.
### Step 2: write both channels of every hook
A hook has two components and both must deliver signal, not setup. The spoken line must be complete enough to create a question in the viewer's mind. The visual frame must be unexpected, specific, or slightly unresolved - because autoplay may be muted, frame one has to work silently. Specify both for every variant: never hand back a spoken line with no visual direction. Ban from frame one: black frames, slow zooms, logo stings, and a talking head with no context.
### Step 3: generate variants across the six formulas
Produce at least three variants per video concept, each from a different formula, each labeled by formula name so the creator can A/B test and build pattern intuition. The highest-performing hook is almost never the first draft.