Bold claim hook: say the thing you can prove in the next 20 seconds
Template and rules for the claim hook: one declarative sentence that the viewer expects you to fail to back up, plus the rule that the proof must be in the video, not in the caption.
Write 5 bold-claim hooks for a short video about {topic}. A claim hook works because the viewer stays to see you fail; it fails when the claim is an opinion or a superlative. Every claim must be checkable on camera within 20 seconds. Templates to fill: - '{Thing} takes {small number} {unit}. I'll show you.' - 'You do not need {expensive thing} to {outcome}.' - '{Common practice} is making your {result} worse.' - 'I {did specific thing} with {constraint}. Here is the result.' - 'Everything you need for {outcome} is already {in your pocket / in your kitchen / on your phone}.' Rules: max 12 words, present tense, a number where there is one, no 'best', 'ultimate', 'secret', 'hack'. For each hook write the PROOF SHOT: what is on screen at 20 s that makes the claim true. If the proof shot is a caption or a testimonial, cut the hook. Return: 5 hooks with their proof shot, ranked by how much the viewer doubts the claim.
In Claude Code, paste the prompt as a message.
Example
Topic: a 10-minute-a-day language habit.
- ‘Ten minutes a day. Thirty days. I ordered dinner in Lisbon.’ Proof shot: the clip of the order, waiter answering in Portuguese.
- ‘You do not need an hour a day to learn a language.’ Proof shot: the app’s calendar, 30 ticks of 10 minutes, next to a notebook page from day 30.
- ‘Studying at night is why you forget it by morning.’ Proof shot: two evening test scores on sticky notes, a midnight day and a morning day.
- ‘Two hundred words is enough to eat anywhere.’ Proof shot: the 200-word list on one page, held to camera.
- ‘Everything you need to start is already on your phone.’ Proof shot: the home screen, the app, the timer set to 10:00.
Tips
- Numbers make a claim checkable: 'ten minutes' can be caught in a lie, 'quickly' cannot, so 'ten minutes' is believed.
- A claim you cannot prove on camera belongs in a storytime, not a hook.
| works with | Claude: Paste into claude.ai or the Claude app. · ChatGPT: Paste into ChatGPT; works with any GPT model. · Claude Code: Runs as a skill or a prompt in the terminal; can read your files and write the result. · Any LLM: Model-agnostic: Gemini, Mistral, a local model. |
| cost | Free. No API, no key. |
| status | Unverified: written from the technique, not yet run end to end by us. |
| license | CC BY 4.0 for the text here; skills are MIT. |
| updated | 2026-11-01 |
| for agents | hook-archetype-bold-claim.md |
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