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Awesome topic, Hitman. It's certainly not anal. Stiff, outdated, or contrived dialogue will absolutely destroy a story.

Before I even looked, I had associations with the Damon Runyon era. Certainly I don't think I've ever heard Mook outside of a Guys & Dolls improvisation. Sure enough, when I googled, Word Detective came up with reference in slang dictionaries that begin in 1930.

Here's what they finally came up with:
As to the origin of "mook," HDAS ventures that it is probably a variation on "moke," a slang term dating back to the middle of the 19th century. "Moke" means several things: originally, it was a slang and dialect term in England for a donkey, but it has also been used as a term of contempt for a Black person or any dark-skinned person. But "moke" has also been used since at least 1855 to mean "a foolish or inconsequential person," which certainly ties it to "mook." Unfortunately, no one has any clear idea of where "moke" came from.


Theories considered but dismissed:
- "mook" rhymes with "kook" and may be a regionalism from New Jersey or New York
- "mook" might derive from "mooch" (so a mook might first have been a moocher)
- might be related to "mota" -- which was slang for marijuana among Latinos at one time

Very good question you bring up there, Hitman. We’ve talked about dialogue very generally once upon a time (Speaking in Voices, maybe elsewhere) but you put your finger right onto a crucially difficult one.

Robert Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle had a great bit of satire with a “Black Acting School” that taught Black actors the movements and lingo they would need to portray gangstas, slaves, pimps and welfare moms convincingly: all classes taught by real white middle-class screenwriters.

It certainly is one of those: if you can’t get it right, don’t do it at all scenarios. I mean usually when some wannabe goes mucking around in a world they don’t know and don’t understand, usually mimicking somebody they imagine does, the usual result is dross they can’t get their own friends to read, but so what. Pass it by and who cares. But when they try adding what they think is realism by gettin’ der badass doooown witda homeboys we have the potential for an actual race riot on our hands.

My personal process on dialogue is to worry less about actual jargon as rhythms. I’m extremely auditory. If I can hear a character, I’ll usually be alright. I would say if you have enough exposure to the vocabulary and usages of a subculture, you don’t have to worry about what is in vogue this week vs next. Do what you would do for any other character: put them in the situation, let them speak from that situation – MAKE them speak in their own rhythm and the right word(s) to fit the idea should just pop out. I remember one of those very white, middleclass writers that COULD right convincing “street poetry” because it was just as organic as what was said on the street. He didn’t refer to “slicing my jeans” because he remembered “cutting my shorts” was some year’s term for someone robbing you. What he knew was that “cutting my shorts” came from cutting purse. And in the rush of the moment, feeling his character’s indignation, his mind put together words in a parallel style to express a parallel thought.

Probably won’t work for everybody, but since you do have some experience rattling around in your noggin and aren’t forced to track down those episodes of The Sopranos with the gangstas, it may just work for you.

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Oh, and talking of the evolution of words, the first time I heard Google as a verb was on a sitcom. Our hero had set some woman up on a blind date, and she was pretending to be from somewhere in the Midwest, I think. She was miced and our hero was listening from a news van with his assistant, Polly, feeding her lines and information.

Date: So you’re from Bluttonville, Nice area. What’s that lake out there?
Girl: Uhh

Hero: (listening in van) Polly, Google it!

Girl: Lake Pollygoogleit.

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