Headline Hook Generator
Most AI headline tools generate 20 variations of the same idea. The Headline & Hook Generator generates 20 headlines built from 10 different psychological formulas — each one labelled, so you learn the system as you use it.
What this skill does
Most AI-generated headlines fail because they optimise for description rather than desire. "How to Improve Your Email Marketing" describes the content. "The 9-Word Email That Recovered $42K in Lost Revenue" creates the desire to read it. The difference isn't creativity — it's engineering. Every high-performing headline activates a specific psychological mechanism: a curiosity gap, loss aversion, identity signalling, a pattern interrupt, or specificity bias. This skill generates by formula, not by brainstorming.
There are ten formulas in the system — Specific Number, How-To With a Twist, Negative/Warning, Curiosity Gap, Question, Contrarian/Myth-Buster, Social Proof/Authority, "You" Address, Resource/Toolkit, and Time-Bound/Speed. Every batch of 20 uses at least eight of them so the output covers the real surface area of the topic. Each headline is labelled with its formula and a one-sentence note on why it works for this specific topic, so you build pattern-matching ability over time.
When you paste a draft headline to improve, it scores the original first against the formula framework, names the specific weakness, then generates the alternatives. You see the before/after gap, not just a list of replacements. Platform mode adjusts for the actual rules of each surface: YouTube front-loads curiosity and stays under 60 characters; LinkedIn writes the headline as a provoking first line of a post, not a title; email subject lines stay under 50 for mobile; X/Twitter rewards hot takes over educational framings.
A few things it won't generate: "Ultimate Guide to..." anything, "Everything You Need to Know About..." anything, any headline with more than two adjectives, and any headline that would work identically if you swapped the topic for something else. If it could work for any subject, it isn't earning its slot. Clickbait gets refused outright — the skill draws a clear line between curiosity (promises something the content delivers) and clickbait (promises something it doesn't), and only does the first.
When this triggers
- ·You finished a piece of content and have a placeholder title that needs replacing
- ·You have a draft headline that isn't landing and want it scored before it gets rewritten
- ·You need platform-specific variants (YouTube vs LinkedIn vs email subject line)
- ·You're A/B testing and need two headlines that pull different psychological levers
- ·Your headlines all sound the same because you keep reaching for the same formula
Example
Trigger
User: 'Improve this: How to Price Your Services. Audience: freelance designers.'
Output
Original scored: 2/10. Formula: generic how-to with no twist. Weaknesses: no specificity, no audience signal, no curiosity gap. 20 alternatives across 8 formulas. Sample: | # | Headline | Formula | Why | |---|----------|---------|-----| | 1 | "How to Raise Your Rates Without Losing a Single Client" | How-To with Twist | adds constraint | | 2 | "7 Pricing Mistakes That Cost Freelancers $10K+/Year" | Specific Number | odd number, dollar stake | | 3 | "Why 'Charge What You're Worth' Is Terrible Pricing Advice" | Contrarian | challenges sacred-cow advice | | 4 | "The Pricing Question Every Designer Should Ask First" | Curiosity Gap | specific, gap-creating | | ... | | | | Top 3 recommendation, ranked. A/B test suggestion: #2 (loss aversion) vs #4 (curiosity) — winner tells you something real about the audience.
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Get The Freelancer Stack — $99What you get
- 151-line SKILL.md, ready to drop into ~/.claude/skills/
- Tested through 3 Karpathy-loop iterations (versions v1.0.0 → v1.3.0)
- Triggers automatically when relevant — no command to remember
- Lifetime updates as the skill is refined further
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