Early writing is a foundational component of emergent literacy. Despite recent increases in early writing research, studies often narrowly focus on transcription (i.e., letter and/or name writing, spelling) to the exclusion of their ability to compose or generate ideas and translate into writing. Research investigating composing approaches it in disparate ways without clear conceptual, empirical, or theoretical foundations. Research Findings: The current study sought to better understand early composing. A sample of 133 pre-kindergarten children completed four composing tasks and which were scored in multiple ways to understand relations between multi-perspective scoring systems and determine if children performed differentially based on task. Findings demonstrated that children's performance, across task context and scoring conceptualization, was variable but mostly highly correlated. Further analyses indicated the overreliance of composing scoring methods on understanding children's composing through a transcription lens, with expressed focus upon children's abilities to transcribe within a composing task context. Results indicated that children performed differentially on tasks; however, this variability was dependent upon scoring method. Practice or Policy: Findings have implications for early childhood teachers given curricular and standards-based emphases on composing, despite the field lacking a strong understanding of the development and nature of composing in young children.