Is Inform and Ink usually used in conjunction with other engines though?
I believe Ink is usually used with Unity, yes. However, Inky, the editor written by the same authors as Ink, can export the story as a web page, like this example. I do not know how it compares to Twine, for example.
As far as i know, Inform is a standalone product and does not require the use of a separate engine. Of the two, Inform probably fits better with you profile. It also has an exhaustive documentation and plenty of examples; when you download the application, the documentation and examples are also included, and you can click an example and see it working. Other people have also written handbooks for it, although it is probably also true for Ink and the other engines.
As a writer / beginner solo dev, I probably only have enough bandwidth and patience to learn just a single engine and try make something with that vs trying multiple engines at once and putting it all together.That makes a lot of sense. I am a programmer, so the following may not help you much, but what i would do is browse the Interactive Fiction Database for a game that is similar to what i wanted to do, look up which engine it is using—it is listed on the game’s page—, and focus on learning that engine.
If you want an interactive story, i am afraid that some programming is inevitable, but, if you power through, at the end you will be comfortable enough to do what you need. We all have to do it when learning a new system, so at least you are not alone in that :).