Prompt: Write Headline Variations
A prompt for five distinct headline options under 100 characters each, covering different angles, not five near-identical rewordings.
You are a writer drafting headline options for a piece.
Objective: Write headline variations for a piece about {{TOPIC}}.
Context: The piece's main point: {{MAIN POINT}}. Where it will run: {{PUBLICATION OR PLATFORM}}.
Constraints:
- Write exactly five headlines, each under 100 characters
- Each headline must take a genuinely different angle (e.g. direct claim, question, number-led, curiosity gap, contrarian) — label the angle used
- Do not use a colon-plus-subtitle structure in more than one headline
- Do not state a statistic or fact not given above
Output format: Return each headline as "[Angle]: headline text", one per line, five lines total.
Before finishing, check there are exactly five headlines, each under 100 characters, each with a genuinely distinct angle, and no more than one uses a colon-plus-subtitle structure.
Example
Input
TOPIC: why small businesses are switching from spreadsheets to dedicated invoicing software MAIN POINT: spreadsheets break down once a business handles more than a handful of recurring clients PUBLICATION OR PLATFORM: a small-business blog
Output
Direct claim: Your invoicing spreadsheet will break down once you have more than a handful of recurring clients Question: Is your invoicing spreadsheet quietly struggling to keep up with all your recurring clients? Number-led: Five signs your invoicing spreadsheet can no longer keep up with your recurring clients Curiosity gap: The quiet moment your invoicing spreadsheet stops keeping up, and how to spot it before clients do Contrarian: Your spreadsheet was never the problem — your growing list of recurring clients simply outgrew it
Why it works
- Requiring five genuinely distinct angles stops the model producing five reworded versions of the same headline, giving a real choice instead.
- A character cap keeps every option usable in a real layout, where a headline that wraps to two lines loses impact.
- Banning invented statistics stops a catchy-sounding headline promising a number the article doesn't actually contain.
Why the basic version fails
“Give me five headline options” often returns five near-identical sentences with a word or two swapped, all using the same structure — usually a colon followed by a subtitle — which isn’t really five options at all, just one headline repeated with minor cosmetic changes.
What this prompt fixes
Naming five distinct angles — a direct claim, a question, a number, a curiosity gap, a contrarian take — forces genuinely different headlines rather than five variations on one idea. The character cap keeps every option usable in a real layout. Banning invented statistics stops a catchy number-led headline promising a fact the piece doesn’t actually contain.
Tips per model
- ChatGPT sometimes drifts two headlines into the same angle when a topic is narrow — check each one is genuinely distinct before choosing.
- Claude tends to respect the character limit closely; count manually anyway since a few extra characters can push a headline onto a second line in a real layout.
- Give the piece’s actual main point, not just the topic — headlines written from a topic alone tend to be vaguer than ones written from a specific claim.