diff --git a/R/io.R b/R/io.R
index 917c62e..11477da 100644
--- a/R/io.R
+++ b/R/io.R
@@ -795,14 +795,12 @@ write_gmt <- function(lst, fname) {
   # head, desc, entry
   if (file.exists(fname)) {
     message(paste(fname, "exists, deleting..."))
-    file.remove(fname)
-  }
-  for (i in seq_along(lst)) {
-    el <- lst[[i]]
-    ncolumns <- 2 + length(el$entry)
-    write(c(el$head, el$desc, el$entry), file=fname, sep="\t",
-          append=TRUE, ncolumns=ncolumns)
+    # fname will be overwritten by cat()
   }
+  lst <- vapply(lst, function(el) {
+    paste(c(el$head, el$desc, el$entry), collapse = "\t")
+  }, character(1L))
+  cat(lst, file=fname, sep="\n", append=FALSE)
 }
 
 #' Read an LXB file and return a matrix