The h2g2 Guide is unique - it's written by the very people who use the Guide, people like you. You can talk to helpful experts, exchange experiences with others who also want to learn how to write, and all this in an incredibly friendly environment where the emphasis is on helping each other to grow as writers, researchers and critics.

Click here to add an entry to the Guide

Remember, by contributing to the Guide, you are granting the BBC a non-exclusive, sublicenseable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, create derivative works from and exercise all rights in your contribution on the BBC's website and all media. See the Terms and Conditions for more information, and you might also like to check out our entry on h2g2 and Intellectual Property Law which explains when you can use material that you haven't written in your entries (like quotations), and the legal section in the h2g2 FAQ. Please note, also, that in places like the Flea Market your work may be continued by others if you leave the site.

There are plenty of exciting ways you can help to contribute to the Guide, and here's a selection - simply click on one of the following links to go to that section:

• Contributing to the Guide
• Becoming an h2g2 Volunteer
• Learning to Write Brilliant Guide Entries
• Using Pictures in the Guide

Everyone can read the Guide Entries on h2g2, but if you really want to get into h2g2, you should register first, so you can contribute to the Guide.

Here are some places you can go to help create the best Guide Entries this side of the Pulitzer Prize.

• The Writing Workshop - The Writing Workshop is the ideal place to submit first efforts and talk to other aspiring authors. But it's not just writers we need contributions from: if you're willing to help hone and improve fledgling prose, then please read and comment on entries: you'll be making a great contribution.

• Peer Review: If you've written something that you're really proud of and think it would make an excellent Edited Guide Entry, then you should put it up for Peer Review. Don't be afraid to air your compositions here, as it's a really friendly place to talk about what Researchers have been working on, but if you'd rather get others to help you put the finishing touches to your masterpiece, visit the Writing Workshop first.

• What's Coming Up? When entries go through the Peer Review system, they appear on the What's Coming Up page. This is where you can see your entry going through the Editorial Process, all the way to the Front Page!

• The Alternative Writing Workshop: If you've written a great Guide Entry, but one which doesn't fit the editorial guidelines, why not check it into the Alternative Writing Workshop? This area is patrolled by the UnderGuide volunteers, who are always on the lookout for those quality Entries that make up h2g2's UnderGuide.

h2g2 couldn't exist without its wonderful Volunteers, so if you're interested in contributing to h2g2 as an Ace, AViator, Guru, Scout, Sub-editor, Photographer, Scavenger, Underguide volunteer, Post Reporter or Community Artist, do check out our Volunteers Page, where you can find all sorts of information on all these schemes.

h2g2 is a brilliant place to learn how to write, but if you're staring at a blank screen and wondering what to do, it can be pretty scary. Don't panic, though - we've put together a page on Learning to Write on h2g2, just for you.

If you want to use pictures in your Guide Entries, the h2g2 Design Team and Community Artist volunteers have put together a huge range of ready-to-use pictures in the h2g2 Picture Library. Each picture also comes with the GuideML required to put that picture into your Guide Entries or onto your Personal Space.

Currently you cannot upload your own pictures, and you can't access off-site pictures (due to copyright issues).

Please don't add pictures to Entries which you write for the Edited Guide, as these will be stripped out during the editing process. When we publish an Edited Guide Entry the Editorial Team may select a graphic to illustrate it. We illustrate some Entries using pictures from the BBC's in-house picture library (which is sadly not available to the general h2g2 Community). We illustrate others using h2g2 Researchers' own photographs - see the h2g2 Photographers page for more information. Finally, some entries are illustrated with artwork designed by the h2g2 Community Artists.

Of course, if your Entry is not intended for the Edited Guide, then feel free to illustrate it yourself, as described earlier.

This replaces the original help page at A462494.