The production of writing occupies a significant place in English classrooms; it also underpins current assessment regimes. While curriculum policies emphasise the need for students to become proficient writers, scant attention has been given to the position of teachers as writers and the impact that such an omission may have on writing pedagogy. This paper examines recent literature on teachers as writers, and draws upon the emerging writing identity of a practising secondary English teacher in Victoria, Australia, who, as a pre-service teacher, began work on a children's novel that reached completion during his third year of teaching. The symbiotic nature of writing informed by classroom experience, which in turn shapes the teaching of writing, is examined in this paper. The authors suggest there are profound pedagogical consequences arising from the demonstration of writerly behaviour in the English classroom. In particular, the capacity for teachers to use writing as a means of creating and affirming cultural capital is explored.