How could I not try a text editor called WriteMonkey? This was slightly slower to start up than Q10 and FocusWriter but it looked a little bit flashier as it did it, with a picture and a quote, which I think you can turn off. Like Q10 it defaults to fullscreen yellow on black Courier 12 for that old-school vibe, and it has clacking typewriter sounds, which thankfully can be turned off easily. It saves as .txt format only, and the only pre-installed language for the spellcheck is US English, but it seemed to suggest that other languages could be downloaded if necessary (I haven’t looked into it as I probably wouldn’t use it).
F1 brings up a comprehensive command list, this editor seems a lot more configurable than the previous ones I’ve reviewed (text alignment, margin size, as well as the usual colours and fonts). It shows a clock and the wordcount along the bottom of the screen but I think you can configure that too. You can also have it show the wordcount from when you set a flag e.g. you wrote 500 words yesterday, you come back today and want to know how much you write today so you set a flag and it shows that the total wordcount is 750 and partial wordcount (since flagged) is 250. You have to remember to set the flag, which isn’t as easy as if it just showed you the wordcount since you opened it, but it makes it more flexible (I’ll have a break then write another 500 words before I put the kettle on).
I couldn’t manage to set a timer or alarm when I was trying it out, but apparently you can do that so it would probably be worth investigating to see if I can find out how, as it seemed quite a usable set-up.