People are attracted to accidents. A train wreck, a plane crash… the more terrible, the more people stare at their television, watching replays over and over. It’s human nature.
I’m just as human as the next guy. I realized that this morning when I went to read a weekly newsletter that gets dumped in my email like clockwork. It’s a horrible newsletter. It’s empty of valuable content, it’s poorly written, and it’s some sort of strange combination of wannabe writing advice and motivational speaking.
It’s complete crap. It’s a 60-car pileup on a snowy Canadian highway. Seriously, it’s that bad. Even Harry would cringe at the terrible graphics and layout, but he’s my bro. I can’t show him this newsletter and sleep with a clear conscience knowing I’ve seared his brain with utter garbage.
And I’m hooked. I try to avoid reading the newsletter, I really do. I let the notice sit in my inbox for days. Sometimes I deleted it. Gmail has a great “undo” feature, so a few hours later, one click, and the notice is staring me in the face again. Eventually, morbid curiosity wins, drawing me to the disaster like flies to a manure pile.
I shouldn’t do this, but I’ll put a link to the newsletter up, if only to show what really poor copywriting is. Hey, how can writers know they’re good if they don’t have something awful to compare it to? Just don’t come blame me if the newsletter becomes your newest addiction – I did give you fair warning.
[...] I don’t recommend it to anyone, even its intended audience. Time for me to tear my eyes from the train wreck I just can’t stop looking at. I [...]