Stop starting the clip at the good part
The most common clipping mistake is starting on the payoff.
Someone says a sharp line. You mark that timestamp. You export from there. The viewer hits a conclusion with no setup, feels nothing, and swipes.
The line that performs is usually 4–12 seconds earlier — the claim, the turn, or the sentence that creates an open loop. The “good part” is what you land on, not what you open on.
A fast test I use on every long-form video:
Find the sentence you would text a friend.
Rewind until you hit the line that makes that sentence necessary.
Start the clip there.
Mute the first 3 seconds. If the picture still makes no sense, recut the open before you touch captions.
Most “this clip didn’t hit” problems are not a caption font problem. They are an in-point problem.
If you clip for creators, this is the whole job: find the in-point a tired editor would miss, then cut everything that does not earn the next second.