Building on previous studies of college students' writing self-efficacy beliefs, this article presents the empirical foundation for a re-conceptualized understanding of this identity process. 131 college freshmen enrolled in a developmental writing course were evaluated holistically using grounded theory methodology. This study identifies 1.) major theoretical categories revealing the nature of students' initial pessimism about themselves as writers and senses of learned helplessness, and 2.) a subsequent shift toward optimism and self-efficacy triggered by a particular learning relationship formed with their instructors, the core of the posited mediated-efficacy theory. Directions for college-level developmental writing pedagogy are explored.