At last you have taken the step that you were afraid of, without reason, for some time1 This is a direct and very personal essay that we appreciate your ideas about this community. We must say that you are right about the role of the community: to accompany young writers in learning, encouraging them to write.

Please take note of our rules, which are posted at the top of The Ink Well community home page and take the time to get to know how our community works. A few important callouts:

• We are all about quality short stories and engagement. This includes both fictional stories and creative nonfiction stories.
• We provide weekly writing prompts to inspire our community of fiction writers and creative nonfiction writers.
• We ask everyone who posts in The Ink Well to read and comment on at least two other writers' work in the community for every story published.
• You can find many writer's resources in our catalog of fiction writing tips.
• We keep a watchful eye out for spam and plagiarism, which are not tolerated.