This study investigated 2- and 3-year-olds' personal interests as a possible source of variation in preschool writing activities. Structured observations of the play behaviors of 11 preschool children in a childcare classroom were conducted one to two days per week for one school year. These data were analyzed to determine choices of play activities, material use, and play actions for each of the children. Naturalistic data collection techniques (e.g., participant observation, video recording, field notes) were used to record the children's participation at the classroom writing table two to four days per week. Video transcripts were microanalyzed to identify the children's preferred types of writing activities. Findings indicated that patterns in the preschoolers' profiles of play behaviors reflected conceptual, procedural, creative, or socially oriented interests and that their personal interest orientations were related to ways they participated in emergent writing activities. Children with conceptual interests used writing to explore and record ideas on topics of personal interest. Children with procedural interests explored how writing worked and practiced conventional literacy (e.g., writing alphabet letters). Children with creative interests explored writing materials to generate new literacy processes and new uses for materials. Children with socially oriented interests used writing to mediate joint social interaction and aligned their activity choices with those of other participants. These findings suggest that children's personal interests help shape their transactions with people, materials, and activities, resulting in different profiles of early writing experiences. (Contains 1 figure and 10 tables.)