This study explored the connection between gesture and writing in early childhood. Participants were 139 children ages 2 years 6 months to 5 years 11 months attending two U.S. childcare centers serving low-income, urban families. Qualitative methods were used to record adult--child writing interactions in classroom composing events and in a standard photo caption writing task. Analysis of children's photo captions showed that 55% of children ages 2 years 6 months to 3 years 5 months used at least one kind of inscribed gesture (e.g., boundary inscriptions, pointing lines). Use of inscribed gestures decreased for older preschoolers. The younger preschoolers also used inscribed gestures in classroom composing events but less frequently. Multimodal interaction analysis was used to microanalyze talk, gesture, body posture, proxemics, and graphic activity for a subsample of 28 children ages 2 years 6 months to 3 years 5 months as they wrote photo captions with adults. Results showed that empty-handed and object gestures were important modes of communication for preschoolers and adults engaged in writing events. As children pointed to the page with a pen in hand, they inscribed their gestures on the page, creating graphic arrays that indicated the target of joint attention. Adults foregrounded and reframed the child's inscribed gestures as emergent forms of writing, offering timely responses that provided opportunities to learn social expectations for writing processes, messages, and purposes. Overall, inscribed gestures served as an initial form of meaningful participation in writing events for preschoolers. In line with Vygotsky, gesture provided a launching point for learning to write in early childhood.