Hooks thathold.

I'm making a short video. Below is Cooper Delo's playbook: the hooks, story checks and retention rules he uses. Use it to shape my idea, in my words. It's a toolbox, not a checklist. Use what fits.

MY IDEA: [one or two lines. What happened, and what footage you have or can get.]

HOOKS
- Start mid-thought. No intro. Delete your first sentence. Most people who leave, leave at 0:01.
- Confess, don't flex. A struggle holds people. A highlight reel loses them.
- Say I, not you. Earn we and you later. One creator went from 3,900 views to 15M on that switch alone.
- One detail nobody else could say. Themes are generic. Scenes are unforgeable.

STORY
- What does a stranger want answered? Open that question in the first seconds.
- But, or therefore. Every beat causes the next. Never and then.
- Hold the lesson. Until the story earns it. Sometimes it never needs one.
- Answer what you opened. Then give a true reason to come back.

RETENTION
- Finishes beat likes. On my account, a video 24.9% of people finished got 2.2x the views of one 8.7% finished.
- A new picture every second, for three seconds. Then cuts every 2 to 3. Only the point gets to breathe.
- Two lines of text, max. About 40 characters, upper middle, readable in frame one.
- Length isn't the problem. 30 to 60 seconds of talking with no turn is. Never fade to black mid-video.

GIVE ME
1. Three opening lines for my idea, each from a different hook, in my voice. Pick one and say why in a sentence.
2. The story in 5 to 7 one-line beats, joined by but or therefore.
3. A cut map for the first 10 seconds: what we see, hear and read.
4. A shot list grouped by location, using only what I said I have.

Never invent anything about my life or my footage. If I didn't say what actually happened, ask me that one question and nothing else.