Start With The Hook
Earlier today, I posted a biscuit with just a title Messaging Needs To Be On The One. That post (one of those Jerry Maguire mission statement moments) came off the back of a WhatsApp with @eliothill about the nature of short, medium and long form content.
In that exchange I wrote that "Messaging needs to be on the one" - that there's nothing wrong with long form if you state, from the outset, what, for the reader, is in it for them if they stay the course and read what follows.
This belief in cutting to the chase, or starting with the hook, has been realised and expressed more eloquently by people long before me:In the old days, the vacuum-cleaner salesman just needed to get his foot in the door; then he would talk you into buying the thing. That groove was my way to get my foot in the door, and then it was up to me to sell you on the rest of the concept. But if you're not interested in the first place, it doesn't mean anything. That's why I would say 99% of the songs that I've ever composed start with the hook: 'Le Freak,' 'Good Times,' 'Dance, Dance, Dance,' 'Upside Down,' 'We Are Family.' I started with the chorus because we figured out early on that if the chorus was the payoff, why not pay them off right away and then let them get into the meal? It's like serving the dessert first.
Nile Rogers
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