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The study investigated the development oflexical diversity and syntactic complexity, two key indi-cators of writing quality, in Chinese second language (L2)writing. The Guiraud Index and T-unit length were used tomeasure lexical and syntactic growth through a cross-sec-tional design. Seven hundred and sixty-five narrativeessays were collected from grade 3–6 students in Singa-pore’s primary schools. Statistical analyses showed ageneral upward trend in lexical and syntactic developmentover the 4 years. In line with a dynamic account, the lex-ical and syntactic components grew in a non-linear andnon-parallel manner with both progress and regress duringthe process. Furthermore, a trade-off was found betweenmore varied word use and longer sentences in the data,though it faded with grade level. While L2 subsystemstended to compete with each other at earlier stages oflanguage learning, their interactions changed over time.Moreover, variations were observed not only across gradelevels but also between learner groups at the same stage oflearning. By extending a dynamic approach to writingdevelopment at early stages of Chinese learning, the studyinforms theory regarding the dynamics of L2 growth andhas significant implications for the teaching of Chinesewriting in the Singapore context