You can fill our plates with waffles any day of the week. But it's less than sweet when waffle gets in the way of good copy. Think: a sprinkle-too-many of details, lumpy ideas not incorporated and a bottom soggy with dense sentences.  

Want to write better? Here's a recipe not to follow. 

1. Undermixed batter – The base of waffle is confused thinking. Whisk up all your ideas, but not too well. Lumpy and complicated is the ideal texture. 
2. Soggy bottoms – To make sure those ideas stay half-cooked, add as many words as possible. The less variety the better. No worries if they don't add extra meaning. 
3. Under-ripe fruit – Flip out the pan and top with jargon or formal language. The more 'professional', the more unpalatable.
4. Sickly sweet syrup – Get caught up in the details. Drizzle in as much description as you want so your writing looks messy and reads heavy. 
5. Plate without care – Stack sentences exclusively of same length and sprinkle with punctuation to taste. Then add more. 

Most writers aren’t strangers to waffling – our first drafts are witnesses of it. But if waffles aren't your thing, we recommend getting strong editors. Or being one yourself. So the next time you think you’ve overwritten, get your editor hat on and turn back to the basics. Because overindulging is a recipe for disaster.