From dictionary.com:
xeno- a combining form meaning “alien,” “strange,” “guest,” used in the formation of compound words.

So xenovocab would be strange or alien words. In this case, those that don’t belong. Okay, yeah, I made up a word because I couldn’t find one that said what I wanted it to. But that’s part of being a writer, ne? Creating worlds and objects and characters and words that don’t exist so we and the people around us can experience something new.

(I wish I had saved the links to these, but I’ll paraphrase and it should get my point across pretty well, even if it misconstrues the original writers’, which it shouldn’t, but it might).

Someone was talking the other day about the worst piece of writing advice a teacher had ever given them. It was in regards to writing realistic dialogue. The teacher had said just listen to the dialogue around you and mimic it. The writer disagreed with this concept because a lot of dialogue has unnecessary elements in it. Tangents, pauses, irrelevant thoughts, etc.

A few months back, someone else was talking about how Twitter had made them a more concise writer. It forced them to self edit because if you only have 140 characters, you have to make sure you’re using each and every character to its maximum efficiency.

Combine these two thoughts and the world around us is teaching us something we all need to pay closer attention to as writers. I know I do. When you talk to someone else, either face to face or on the phone, the conversation is real-time. You don’t have time to filter your thoughts, and you frequently add in extra words. That’s the way verbal communication has been since the start of time.

Writing dialogue isn’t technically verbal communication. It’s a written representation of verbal communication. Like email, texting, Facebook, twitter, chat rooms, you get the point. When we only have so much time or space to say what we want to say, our priorities become different.

For instance, if you’re exchanging letters with someone, and you know you’re only going to get to talk to them once that week, and the entire conversation has to be encapsulated in a single typed (or even handwritten) page, you’re going to put more thought into what you do and don’t say. Out of all the things you want to share, you’ll focus on those that are most important to the conversation.

Same with any of these other digital communication outlets. Sending a text message? You’re only using vital thoughts and words.

This is my new measure for writing dialogue. My new way to eliminate extraneous scenes, thoughts, words, dialogue, everything from my stories. If it doesn’t belong in written correspondence – relevance wise – it doesn’t belong in my stories.

Of course, given some of the rambling I do in my written correspondence, I might should use other people as a ruler instead, but…where would the fun in that be? 😉

What are some real world things you use to keep lessons learned in mind?