Emotional Appeal Selector

Choose the emotional lever that will make an audience actually care about a message — and strip out the analytical priming that kills charity before the emotional ask lands. Use this skill whenever a message is technically correct but emotionally flat, whenever the user asks "how do I make them care", "nobody cares about this", "why won't people act", "why should they care", "make this emotional without being cheesy", "motivate people", "this fundraising email isn't working", "rewrite this pitch so it lands", "our cause is important but donations are dropping", or "this announcement is dry and people are ignoring it". Also triggers when the user has a spreadsheet-heavy pitch, a statistics-first fundraising appeal, a recruiting message that lists benefits nobody responds to, a behavior-change campaign that's being ignored, a change-management memo that reads like a policy document, or a mission statement that employees cannot see themselves inside. Applies three named levers from Made to Stick — Association (tap emotions they already have), Self-Interest (what's in it for you, stated plainly), and Identity (who am I and what do people like me do) — plus the Mother Teresa / identifiable-victim rule (one specific person beats aggregate statistics) plus Maslow's eight needs used as a non-hierarchical palette (warning against "Maslow's basement" — assuming others are motivated only by money and security). Critically detects and removes analytical priming — calculations, spreadsheets, statistics placed before an emotional ask — because the mere act of calculation has been shown to reduce charitable response. This skill does NOT manipulate via fear, exploit vulnerability, or produce sympathy-begging copy. It does NOT write the full message end-to-end (pair with a rewriting skill); it produces an emotional-appeal plan — chosen lever, framing, concrete moves, and forbidden moves — that a writer or another skill can execute.

View on ClawhHubView on GitHub

Install

Claude CodeClawhHubnpxCursorCodexGemini CLI

1. Add marketplace

› /plugin marketplace add bookforge-ai/bookforge-skills

2. Install plugin

› /plugin install made-to-stick@bookforge-skills

3. Use the skill

› /emotional-appeal-selector

CC-BY-SA · Open sourceGitHub

Source Book

Made to Stick

Chip Heath, Dan Heath

More from Made to Stick

Communicationhybrid

Concrete Language Rewriter

Rewrite abstract, theoretical, or jargon-heavy passages into sensory, schema-based language the audience can already picture — using three named techniques (schema tap, high-concept pitch, generative analogy). Use this skill whenever a draft sounds abstract, strategy-level, or theoretical and the user wants it grounded in concrete imagery the reader can see, hear, touch, or do. Activate when the user says "this sounds abstract", "make it more concrete", "feels jargon-y", "how do I explain this", "rewrite this pitch", "too theoretical", "simplify the language", "ground this", "make it tangible", "the reader can't picture it", "I'm stuck at the strategy level", "translate this into plain language", "make this vivid", "needs an analogy", "give me a one-liner pitch", "explain this to a 5-year-old", "we need a metaphor for this", or provides an abstract passage plus an audience and asks to concretize it. Also triggers when a mission statement, value prop, policy memo, product page, cultural value, onboarding doc, or training scenario reads like a thesaurus of abstractions (synergy, excellence, alignment, optimize, empower, leverage, robust, scalable, best-in-class). The skill does NOT invent fake sensory details to ground a claim the user has not actually made, does NOT score the whole SUCCESs rubric (that is the stickiness-audit skill), and does NOT write full narrative stories (that is the story-framing skill) — it produces a side-by-side before/after rewrite of each flagged abstract passage with the technique used and why.

Messaginghybrid

Core Message Extractor

Extract the single-sentence core of any message — the one thing that must survive if everything else is lost. Use this skill whenever the user asks 'what's my one sentence?', 'simplify this pitch', 'find the core', 'one-liner for this', 'elevator pitch', 'boil this down', 'what's the headline?', 'TL;DR this', 'what's the one thing?', or has a draft, announcement, pitch, product description, speech, or strategy memo that says too many things at once. Also invoke when the user struggles with 'my message isn't landing', 'I have 30 seconds to explain this', 'we can't agree on messaging', 'nobody remembers our pitch', or wants a Commander's Intent, high-concept pitch, tagline, mission statement, or forced prioritization of candidate points. This is the foundation skill for all sticky messaging — run it BEFORE any unexpected/concrete/credible/emotional/story framing work.

Credibilityplan-only

Credibility Evidence Selector

Pick the strongest credibility evidence for a claim and kill weak evidence chains with the Sinatra Test. Use this skill whenever the user asks 'how do I prove this?', 'how do I make this more credible?', 'which statistic should I cite?', 'do I need a source for this?', 'how do I build trust?', 'this claim sounds unbelievable', 'they won't believe us', 'we need a case study', 'should I quote an expert?', 'is this testimonial strong enough?', 'which proof point should I lead with?', 'my pitch needs more evidence', 'the numbers aren't landing', 'how do I back this up without a credentials wall?', 'who should say this for maximum credibility?', or 'is one example enough or do I need data?'. Also invoke when the user has a marketing claim, sales pitch, fundraising ask, research finding, policy argument, product benefit, or security/reliability promise and must choose between authority quotes, customer stories, statistics, vivid details, testable demos, or a single hero example. This skill ranks evidence across six named credibility categories (external authority, antiauthority, testable credentials, vivid details, Sinatra Test hero example, statistics-as-illustration) and applies the Sinatra Test as a pass/fail filter to cut weak chains. Run BEFORE shipping any claim that a skeptical audience might doubt.

Communicationhybrid

Curiosity Gap Architect

Build an Unexpected hook for a message, pitch, essay, ad, talk, or email — first break the audience's expected pattern to CAPTURE attention, then open a curiosity gap (a knowledge gap they didn't know existed) to HOLD attention all the way to the core message. Use this skill whenever the user says 'how do I hook them', 'what's my opening line', 'I need to get attention', 'this is boring how do I make it interesting', 'what's my angle', 'stop losing the audience', 'hook for my post', 'cold-open', 'lead paragraph', 'ad headline', 'landing page hero', 'intro for my talk', 'title that makes people click', 'my opening is flat', 'people tune out in the first 10 seconds', 'how do I make this dry topic interesting', 'email subject line', 'tweet hook', 'YouTube intro', 'TED-style opener', 'how Nora Ephron taught leads', 'Cialdini mystery opening', 'how to use surprise without being gimmicky'. Applies the two Unexpected mechanisms from Made to Stick Chapter 2: (1) SURPRISE via schema-break for short-term attention capture, (2) CURIOSITY GAP via Gap Theory of Curiosity (Loewenstein) for long-term attention hold. Every surprise option is scored against the POST-DICTABLE TEST — a good surprise feels inevitable in hindsight and drives home the core message; a gimmicky surprise gets a laugh but the audience can't remember the point. Produces 3 scored hook variants the user can drop into their draft. Does NOT rewrite the body of the message — only the hook and the gap structure. Does NOT manufacture shock or clickbait for its own sake. Relevant for: copywriters, marketers, product marketers, founders pitching, teachers, trainers, public speakers, content writers, journalists, fundraisers, PR, messaging, narrative design, persuasion, attention, Heath brothers, SUCCESs, Unexpected, Gap Theory, Loewenstein, schema break, postdictable, Ephron lead, Nordstrom Nordies, Cialdini Saturn rings, popcorn Silverman.