The steepest drop on almost every retention graph happens before the 30-second mark, and most hooks get written twice. The first time is accidental, when you start talking at the camera and hope momentum turns up. The second is in the edit, when you watch the opening back and realise the first 40 seconds are a warm-up nobody will sit through. The cheaper way is to write three hooks at the planning stage, before the script exists, and pick one with fresh eyes.
Viewers who leave in those opening seconds never see the section you made the whole video for, and YouTube reads an early exodus as a reason to stop recommending. A strong video with a weak opening rarely gets the chance to prove it was strong. That is why the hook deserves its own task in the Plan phase rather than a slot in the edit: by the time you are editing, the opening is already filmed, and your options have shrunk to trimming.
Why three hooks, not one
Your first idea for an opening is usually the same opening every other video on the topic uses. That is not a personal failing; it is what a first idea is. Writing three forces you past the obvious version, and the second or third attempt is normally where the actual angle of the video shows itself.
Write them as full spoken sentences, not notes. "Hook about the budget thing" is a placeholder, and placeholders collapse in front of a camera. What you want on the page is the exact words you would say in the first 8 seconds.
Then walk away. Pick the winner the next day, out loud, with fresh eyes. The one that sounded electric at midnight often reads as shouty in the morning, while the quiet one with the specific detail tends to hold up.
Three shapes that cover most videos
You do not need a swipe file of 40 hook formulas.
- The claim. Open with the thing you believe that the viewer does not yet. "Most of what you have heard about tags is three years out of date." It starts an argument the viewer wants settled.
- The cold open. Drop them into the result with no setup: the finished room, the final number, the moment it worked. Then rewind to the start. It proves the destination before asking anyone to sit through the journey.
- The stake. Name what goes wrong when this topic is ignored. Not doom for its own sake, just the honest cost. "This is the setting that quietly ruins your audio."
If a video refuses all three shapes, the problem usually sits upstream in the video's promise itself. That is the Lock the promise task at the very top of the Plan phase, and it is worth revisiting before forcing a hook onto a video that cannot say who it is for.
Write them before the script
This is the part that changes results, and it is a sequencing change rather than a writing change. The hook is a promise, and the script is the schedule for paying it off. Written in that order, the script inherits a spine: the promise lands by second 8, the first proof arrives inside the first minute, and the payoff sits where the outline needs energy.
Written in the other order, the hook has to be excavated from a finished script, and it usually comes out as a summary.
The 8-second test
Read the chosen hook aloud and time it. If the promise has not landed by second 8, cut words until it has. You are not aiming to talk faster; you are aiming to need fewer words. Names of things beat descriptions of things, and numbers beat adjectives.
While you are at it, hold the intro. Logo stings, channel welcomes and subscribe asks are tolerated from channels viewers already love, so earn the tolerance first. Every second of the opening either sells this video or sells the back button.
Where Chewbr fits
In Chewbr, Draft three hooks is step 4 of the 47, sitting in the Plan phase where it can still shape the script. The task exists there so the hook gets decided while deciding is cheap, instead of being salvaged from finished footage at midnight.
Keep reading
The hook you choose gets its grade about two days after publish, in the opening dip of the retention graph. When a YouTube video flops: the 48-hour debrief covers how to read it without flinching. The launch note you write on publish day, part of What to do after uploading a YouTube video: the first hour, is where the next video's three hooks usually come from.