A compelling hook is a question or statement that – quite simply – keeps you hooked. This is where your insights, contradictions and motivations come together to keep your creative process fresh.

Scriptwriter Blake Snyder* reckoned that irony was the greatest hook of all.

Irony is the difference between the way the world is and the way it ought to be.

“Irony gets my attention,” Synder wrote, “it’s emotionally intriguing, like an itch you have to scratch.”

You need: 30 – 40 minutes, pen, worksheet and Post-it notes

Download this worksheet and use it to explore your project.

Actor, world, emotion & irony – blank

Write as many different options as you can in each box, then pick out the ones which grab your attention and move onto the second half of the worksheet. There’s an example here using the worksheet to explore the insight that 75% of us don’t know, when asked at 4pm, what we’re having for our evening meal tonight.**

Credit: *Blake Snyder’s book on scriptwriting, Save the Cat. **Food stat comes from boss of Waitrose, quoted in the Daily Telegraph.