"This is real take-it-to-the-keyboard stuff that comes from a lifetime of working with writers," Jack Hart says of his new book, A Writer's Coach. A managing editor of The Oregonian newspaper, Jack has spent almost four decades editing, writing and coaching journalists and other writers. The result of this experience is his practical guide to "words that work." We talked to Jack about writing.

VT: In your book you deflate the "mystique" of writing.

In her 30 year career as a copy editor, its no surprise Pam Nelson has seen her share of grammar foibles. Hey, kidding about "its!" Now a features copy editor at North Carolina's News & Observer, she also writes the newspaper's popular blog on usage called the Triangle Grammar Guide. Readers from Raleigh, Durham -- and around the world -- shoot Pam their questions, rankles, bloopers, even a photo or two. We spoke to Pam about her grammar blog:

VT: What kinds of usage conundrums ruffle your readers?

How do you capture the flavor and texture of another language in your writing? To find out we spoke to Alfredo José Estrada, Cuban-born author of the novel Welcome to Havana, Señor Hemingway and the forthcoming history, Havana: Autobiography of a City (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). Both books lyrically convey Cuban culture and language across a span of historical periods. Alfredo explains how he makes this happen:

Writing coaches always tell you to read other writers to unlock the secrets of their particular mojo. Author Marilyn Johnson found inspiration in an unlikely place: The obituary column. "Good obit writers can bring someone -- well, to life," she explains. "It's a demonstration of great writing and I was very interested in how they did it." She was so interested, in fact, she started writing obituaries herself -- and then wrote a book on the subject called The Dead Beat. We spoke to Marilyn about the obit genre:

My favorite bon mot on writing comes from a former editor of the LA Times: "There are only two kinds of writers, bad ones, and the ones trying to get better." If you aspire to the latter group, you must pick up Roy Peter Clark's newly-released Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer. How essential? Well, let me offer my own humble testimonial: Nothing I've ever read has helped me sharpen my writing as much as this collection of tools. I think about strategies like "gold coins," "word space" and "the name of the dog" (not to mention the "power of three") every time I sit down to write a piece. I first came across these tools, by the way, on the website of the Poynter Institute, a school for journalists where Roy's the vice president and senior scholar. Now that Roy's mojo is in book form, you got it made! I called Roy to talk to him about his tools. -- Editor

When last we sunk premolars into chewy bagel, we talked about the "controlling idea" in composition with playwright and creative exec Clark Morgan. In this installment of our ongoing conversation about writing, we look at what happens once you nail your main theme. In a word, rhetoric. Yes, old-fashioned rhetoric. Let Clark explain:

VT: Okay, I've got my controlling idea. I've written for a while, I've generated a bunch of things I want to say. Now what?

Clark: Now you're looking at it thinking, what have I wrought? How do I make sense of this?

VT: Yes, how? It seems like you could arrange it any number of different ways. How do you know what's the right way to organize?

Award-winning author David Brin's celebrated works of science fiction have been translated into more than 20 languages, but his prolific writing extends to technology, science, culture and politics. He also writes about writing: He's received so many requests for advice from would-be authors that he gathered his thoughts on writing in an excellent essay available on the Internet called the A Long Lonely Road. Trained as a scientist, David's worked as a physics professor and NASA consultant in addition to creating the acclaimed Uplift book series. We called up David for a -- tad contrarian -- conversation about writing: