This talk introduces the monograph that I am currently completing, under contract with Oxford University Press. It will present the conceptual framework of ‘writing acts’, as an alternative approach to the power of writing in the early modern period. While loosely inspired from the notion of ‘speech acts’ (originally developed in the philosophy of language), the analysis of writing acts foregrounds the specificities of the written medium compared to the spoken, notably its materiality and durability over time. I will discuss the material life-course of writing acts and the agency of writers/actors. If time allows, I will briefly present the context and two genres at the centre of the monograph: ceremonial records and protestations under the ancien régime (France, c. 1650–1789).