OK. So you can write HTML. Great.

Great? Wait a minute. How do I go back and just write. No, dummy, not HTML. I mean like writing writing. Oh, I'm starting to cry.

Err, don't cry. Use pre.

What?

It's pre. You want to use pre.

<pre>
All right, you lovely adorable yous,
when you
  Really
  Want
  To
just write, and not worry about where
your words go, but just put them there...

Then You Want

pre.

</pre>

It's that simple.

Since pre is nice and simple (as text generally ought to be), I prefer to keep the beginning and ending tags on separate lines.

That way I can see how it looks, while I'm typing.