In a small informal study of the process of children's writing, three children, aged 9, 10, and 11, were observed as they wrote. Specifically, the study sought to discover how the children approached the task of writing, the manner and extent of their interaction, and the result of this interaction upon their writing. Each child's writing was also examined to determine how it fit into the three modes of James Britton's model of language functions: expressive (language which remains close to the speaker), transactional (language to get things done), and poetic. In addition, the study attempted to discover what constituted a story to the children. Each child was told on the night previous to the planned writing activity to give some thought to the writing of a good story, and the actual writing was completed in approximately one hour in an informal setting. The results suggest that interaction among the children did not appear to interfere greatly with their finished stories and, despite the interaction, the children wrote individual stories. In terms of Britton's model, all three stories fell on the continuum between expressive and poetic writing. In addition, the children showed a clear idea of what a story should be like and used these notions in their writing. (Charts of the children's comments and behaviors during the activity and copies of their stories are appended.) (FL)