diff --git a/examples/main.zig b/examples/main.zig
index 5abbf5f..2340d8e 100644
--- a/examples/main.zig
+++ b/examples/main.zig
@@ -14,26 +14,36 @@ pub fn main() !void {
     }
     const alloc = gpa.allocator();
 
+    // Initialize Vaxis
     var vx = try vaxis.init(Event, .{});
     defer vx.deinit(alloc);
 
+    // Start the read loop. This puts the terminal in raw mode and begins
+    // reading user input
     try vx.start();
     defer vx.stop();
 
+    // Optionally enter the alternate screen
     try vx.enterAltScreen();
 
+    // We'll adjust the color index every keypress
     var color_idx: u8 = 0;
     const msg = "Hello, world!";
+
+    // The main event loop. Vaxis provides a thread safe, blocking, buffered
+    // queue which can serve as the primary event queue for an application
     outer: while (true) {
+        // nextEvent blocks until an event is in the queue
         const event = vx.nextEvent();
         log.debug("event: {}\r\n", .{event});
+        // exhaustive switching ftw. Vaxis will send events if your EventType
+        // enum has the fields for those events (ie "key_press", "winsize")
         switch (event) {
             .key_press => |key| {
-                if (color_idx == 255) {
-                    color_idx = 0;
-                } else {
-                    color_idx += 1;
-                }
+                color_idx = switch (color_idx) {
+                    255 => 0,
+                    else => color_idx + 1,
+                };
                 if (key.codepoint == 'c' and key.mods.ctrl) {
                     break :outer;
                 }
@@ -44,20 +54,42 @@ pub fn main() !void {
             else => {},
         }
 
+        // vx.window() returns the root window. This window is the size of the
+        // terminal and can spawn child windows as logical areas. Child windows
+        // cannot draw outside of their bounds
         const win = vx.window();
+        // Clear the entire space because we are drawing in immediate mode.
+        // vaxis double buffers the screen. This new frame will be compared to
+        // the old and only updated cells will be drawn
         win.clear();
+
+        // Create some child window. .expand means the height and width will
+        // fill the remaining space of the parent. Child windows do not store a
+        // reference to their parent: this is true immediate mode. Do not store
+        // windows, always create new windows each render cycle
         const child = win.initChild(win.width / 2 - msg.len / 2, win.height / 2, .expand, .expand);
+        // Loop through the message and print the cells to the screen
         for (msg, 0..) |_, i| {
             const cell: Cell = .{
+                // each cell takes a _grapheme_ as opposed to a single
+                // codepoint. This allows Vaxis to handle emoji properly,
+                // particularly with terminals that the Unicode Core extension
+                // (IE Mode 2027)
                 .char = .{ .grapheme = msg[i .. i + 1] },
-                .style = .{ .fg = .{ .index = color_idx } },
+                .style = .{
+                    .fg = .{ .index = color_idx },
+                },
             };
             child.writeCell(i, 0, cell);
         }
+        // Render the screen
         try vx.render();
     }
 }
 
+// Our EventType. This can contain internal events as well as Vaxis events.
+// Internal events can be posted into the same queue as vaxis events to allow
+// for a single event loop with exhaustive switching. Booya
 const Event = union(enum) {
     key_press: vaxis.Key,
     winsize: vaxis.Winsize,
diff --git a/src/Tty.zig b/src/Tty.zig
index dc0bbe5..096ed7a 100644
--- a/src/Tty.zig
+++ b/src/Tty.zig
@@ -9,6 +9,10 @@ const log = std.log.scoped(.tty);
 
 const Tty = @This();
 
+const Writer = std.io.Writer(os.fd_t, os.WriteError, os.write);
+
+const BufferedWriter = std.io.BufferedWriter(4096, Writer);
+
 /// the original state of the terminal, prior to calling makeRaw
 termios: os.termios,
 
@@ -18,6 +22,8 @@ fd: os.fd_t,
 /// the write end of a pipe to signal the tty should exit it's run loop
 quit_fd: ?os.fd_t = null,
 
+buffered_writer: BufferedWriter,
+
 /// initializes a Tty instance by opening /dev/tty and "making it raw"
 pub fn init() !Tty {
     // Open our tty
@@ -29,6 +35,7 @@ pub fn init() !Tty {
     return Tty{
         .fd = fd,
         .termios = termios,
+        .buffered_writer = std.io.bufferedWriter(Writer{ .context = fd }),
     };
 }
 
@@ -173,16 +180,15 @@ pub fn run(
     }
 }
 
-const Writer = std.io.Writer(os.fd_t, os.WriteError, os.write);
-
-pub fn writer(self: *Tty) Writer {
-    return .{ .context = self.fd };
-}
-/// write to the tty
-//
-// TODO: buffer the writes
+/// write to the tty. These writes are buffered and require calling flush to
+/// flush writes to the tty
 pub fn write(self: *Tty, bytes: []const u8) !usize {
-    return os.write(self.fd, bytes);
+    return self.buffered_writer.write(bytes);
+}
+
+/// flushes the write buffer to the tty
+pub fn flush(self: *Tty) !void {
+    try self.buffered_writer.flush();
 }
 
 /// makeRaw enters the raw state for the terminal.
diff --git a/src/vaxis.zig b/src/vaxis.zig
index 723b0b0..6eda74e 100644
--- a/src/vaxis.zig
+++ b/src/vaxis.zig
@@ -41,6 +41,10 @@ pub fn Vaxis(comptime T: type) type {
 
         alt_screen: bool,
 
+        // statistics
+        renders: usize = 0,
+        render_dur: i128 = 0,
+
         /// Initialize Vaxis with runtime options
         pub fn init(_: Options) !Self {
             return Self{
@@ -61,6 +65,7 @@ pub fn Vaxis(comptime T: type) type {
                 var tty = &self.tty.?;
                 if (self.alt_screen) {
                     _ = tty.write(ctlseqs.rmcup) catch {};
+                    tty.flush() catch {};
                 }
                 tty.deinit();
             }
@@ -68,6 +73,11 @@ pub fn Vaxis(comptime T: type) type {
                 self.screen.deinit(a);
                 self.screen_last.deinit(a);
             }
+            if (self.renders > 0) {
+                const tpr = @divTrunc(self.render_dur, self.renders);
+                log.info("total renders = {d}", .{self.renders});
+                log.info("microseconds per render = {d}", .{tpr});
+            }
         }
 
         /// spawns the input thread to start listening to the tty for input
@@ -126,6 +136,7 @@ pub fn Vaxis(comptime T: type) type {
             if (self.alt_screen) return;
             var tty = self.tty orelse return;
             _ = try tty.write(ctlseqs.smcup);
+            try tty.flush();
             self.alt_screen = true;
         }
 
@@ -134,14 +145,20 @@ pub fn Vaxis(comptime T: type) type {
             if (!self.alt_screen) return;
             var tty = self.tty orelse return;
             _ = try tty.write(ctlseqs.rmcup);
+            try tty.flush();
             self.alt_screen = false;
         }
 
         /// draws the screen to the terminal
         pub fn render(self: *Self) !void {
             var tty = self.tty orelse return;
+            self.renders += 1;
+            const timer_start = std.time.microTimestamp();
+            defer {
+                self.render_dur += std.time.microTimestamp() - timer_start;
+            }
 
-            // TODO: optimize writes
+            defer tty.flush() catch {};
 
             // Send the cursor to 0,0
             // TODO: this needs to move after we optimize writes. We only do
@@ -181,7 +198,7 @@ pub fn Vaxis(comptime T: type) type {
 
                 // reposition the cursor, if needed
                 if (reposition) {
-                    try std.fmt.format(tty.writer(), ctlseqs.cup, .{ row + 1, col + 1 });
+                    try std.fmt.format(tty.buffered_writer.writer(), ctlseqs.cup, .{ row + 1, col + 1 });
                 }
 
                 // something is different, so let's loop throuugh everything and
@@ -189,45 +206,48 @@ pub fn Vaxis(comptime T: type) type {
 
                 // foreground
                 if (!std.meta.eql(cursor.fg, cell.style.fg)) {
+                    const writer = tty.buffered_writer.writer();
                     switch (cell.style.fg) {
                         .default => _ = try tty.write(ctlseqs.fg_reset),
                         .index => |idx| {
                             switch (idx) {
-                                0...7 => try std.fmt.format(tty.writer(), ctlseqs.fg_base, .{idx}),
-                                8...15 => try std.fmt.format(tty.writer(), ctlseqs.fg_bright, .{idx}),
-                                else => try std.fmt.format(tty.writer(), ctlseqs.fg_indexed, .{idx}),
+                                0...7 => try std.fmt.format(writer, ctlseqs.fg_base, .{idx}),
+                                8...15 => try std.fmt.format(writer, ctlseqs.fg_bright, .{idx}),
+                                else => try std.fmt.format(writer, ctlseqs.fg_indexed, .{idx}),
                             }
                         },
                         .rgb => |rgb| {
-                            try std.fmt.format(tty.writer(), ctlseqs.fg_rgb, .{ rgb[0], rgb[1], rgb[2] });
+                            try std.fmt.format(writer, ctlseqs.fg_rgb, .{ rgb[0], rgb[1], rgb[2] });
                         },
                     }
                 }
                 // background
                 if (!std.meta.eql(cursor.bg, cell.style.bg)) {
+                    const writer = tty.buffered_writer.writer();
                     switch (cell.style.bg) {
                         .default => _ = try tty.write(ctlseqs.bg_reset),
                         .index => |idx| {
                             switch (idx) {
-                                0...7 => try std.fmt.format(tty.writer(), ctlseqs.bg_base, .{idx}),
-                                8...15 => try std.fmt.format(tty.writer(), ctlseqs.bg_bright, .{idx}),
-                                else => try std.fmt.format(tty.writer(), ctlseqs.bg_indexed, .{idx}),
+                                0...7 => try std.fmt.format(writer, ctlseqs.bg_base, .{idx}),
+                                8...15 => try std.fmt.format(writer, ctlseqs.bg_bright, .{idx}),
+                                else => try std.fmt.format(writer, ctlseqs.bg_indexed, .{idx}),
                             }
                         },
                         .rgb => |rgb| {
-                            try std.fmt.format(tty.writer(), ctlseqs.bg_rgb, .{ rgb[0], rgb[1], rgb[2] });
+                            try std.fmt.format(writer, ctlseqs.bg_rgb, .{ rgb[0], rgb[1], rgb[2] });
                         },
                     }
                 }
                 // underline color
                 if (!std.meta.eql(cursor.ul, cell.style.ul)) {
+                    const writer = tty.buffered_writer.writer();
                     switch (cell.style.bg) {
                         .default => _ = try tty.write(ctlseqs.ul_reset),
                         .index => |idx| {
-                            try std.fmt.format(tty.writer(), ctlseqs.ul_indexed, .{idx});
+                            try std.fmt.format(writer, ctlseqs.ul_indexed, .{idx});
                         },
                         .rgb => |rgb| {
-                            try std.fmt.format(tty.writer(), ctlseqs.ul_rgb, .{ rgb[0], rgb[1], rgb[2] });
+                            try std.fmt.format(writer, ctlseqs.ul_rgb, .{ rgb[0], rgb[1], rgb[2] });
                         },
                     }
                 }
@@ -315,7 +335,8 @@ pub fn Vaxis(comptime T: type) type {
                         // a url
                         ps = "";
                     }
-                    try std.fmt.format(tty.writer(), ctlseqs.osc8, .{ ps, url });
+                    const writer = tty.buffered_writer.writer();
+                    try std.fmt.format(writer, ctlseqs.osc8, .{ ps, url });
                 }
                 _ = try tty.write(cell.char.grapheme);
             }