diff --git a/csharp/src/Google.Protobuf/WritingPrimitives.cs b/csharp/src/Google.Protobuf/WritingPrimitives.cs
index 846df7350260..1a25f8e9d3bf 100644
--- a/csharp/src/Google.Protobuf/WritingPrimitives.cs
+++ b/csharp/src/Google.Protobuf/WritingPrimitives.cs
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 
 using System;
 using System.Buffers.Binary;
+using System.Diagnostics;
 using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
 using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
 using System.Security;
@@ -45,8 +46,11 @@ namespace Google.Protobuf
     [SecuritySafeCritical]
     internal static class WritingPrimitives
     {
-        // "Local" copy of Encoding.UTF8, for efficiency. (Yes, it makes a difference.)
-        internal static readonly Encoding Utf8Encoding = Encoding.UTF8;
+#if NET5_0
+        internal static Encoding Utf8Encoding => Encoding.UTF8; // allows JIT to devirtualize
+#else
+        internal static Encoding Utf8Encoding = Encoding.UTF8; // "Local" copy of Encoding.UTF8, for efficiency. (Yes, it makes a difference.)
+#endif
 
         #region Writing of values (not including tags)
 
@@ -163,6 +167,38 @@ public static void WriteBool(ref Span<byte> buffer, ref WriterInternalState stat
         /// </summary>
         public static void WriteString(ref Span<byte> buffer, ref WriterInternalState state, string value)
         {
+#if !NETSTANDARD1_1
+            const int MaxBytesPerChar = 3;
+            const int MaxSmallStringLength = 128 / MaxBytesPerChar;
+
+            // The string is small enough that the length will always be a 1 byte varint.
+            // Also there is enough space to write length + bytes to buffer.
+            // Write string directly to the buffer, and then write length.
+            if (value.Length <= MaxSmallStringLength && buffer.Length - state.position - 1 >= value.Length * MaxBytesPerChar)
+            {
+                ReadOnlySpan<char> source = value.AsSpan();
+                int bytesUsed;
+                unsafe
+                {
+                    fixed (char* sourceChars = &MemoryMarshal.GetReference(source))
+                    fixed (byte* destinationBytes = &MemoryMarshal.GetReference(buffer))
+                    {
+                        bytesUsed = Utf8Encoding.GetBytes(
+                            sourceChars,
+                            source.Length,
+                            destinationBytes + state.position + 1,
+                            buffer.Length - state.position - 1);
+                    }
+                }
+
+                Debug.Assert(bytesUsed < 128);
+                buffer[state.position] = (byte)bytesUsed;
+
+                state.position += bytesUsed + 1;
+                return;
+            }
+#endif
+
             // Optimise the case where we have enough space to write
             // the string directly to the buffer, which should be common.
             int length = Utf8Encoding.GetByteCount(value);
@@ -189,9 +225,13 @@ public static void WriteString(ref Span<byte> buffer, ref WriterInternalState st
                     unsafe
                     {
                         fixed (char* sourceChars = &MemoryMarshal.GetReference(source))
-                        fixed (byte* destinationBytes = &MemoryMarshal.GetReference(buffer.Slice(state.position)))
+                        fixed (byte* destinationBytes = &MemoryMarshal.GetReference(buffer))
                         {
-                            bytesUsed = Utf8Encoding.GetBytes(sourceChars, source.Length, destinationBytes, buffer.Length);
+                            bytesUsed = Utf8Encoding.GetBytes(
+                                sourceChars,
+                                source.Length,
+                                destinationBytes + state.position,
+                                buffer.Length - state.position);
                         }
                     }
                     state.position += bytesUsed;