diff --git a/cmarkly b/cmarkly
index 85ef5cf..23f5ae2 160000
--- a/cmarkly
+++ b/cmarkly
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit 85ef5cf05aa13000bb3a7c9579ac6091341f814a
+Subproject commit 23f5ae2bfa456cf49ac7e232a90648c1e83387f3
diff --git a/ext/markly/plaintext.c b/ext/markly/plaintext.c
index e212b19..0ab3f0f 100644
--- a/ext/markly/plaintext.c
+++ b/ext/markly/plaintext.c
@@ -10,12 +10,6 @@
 
 // Functions to convert cmark_nodes to plain text strings.
 
-static CMARK_INLINE void outc(cmark_renderer *renderer, cmark_node *node, 
-                              cmark_escaping escape,
-                              int32_t c, unsigned char nextc) {
-  cmark_render_code_point(renderer, c);
-}
-
 static int S_render_node(cmark_renderer *renderer, cmark_node *node,
                          cmark_event_type ev_type, int options) {
   int list_number;
@@ -217,5 +211,5 @@ char *cmark_render_plaintext_with_mem(cmark_node *root, int options, int width,
     // a different meaning with OPT_HARDBREAKS
     width = 0;
   }
-  return cmark_render(mem, root, options, width, outc, S_render_node);
+  return cmark_render(mem, root, options, width, NULL, S_render_node);
 }
diff --git a/ext/markly/render.c b/ext/markly/render.c
index 20916fe..9d97def 100644
--- a/ext/markly/render.c
+++ b/ext/markly/render.c
@@ -19,6 +19,12 @@ static CMARK_INLINE void S_blankline(cmark_renderer *renderer) {
   }
 }
 
+static void S_outc_verbatim(cmark_renderer *renderer, cmark_node *node,
+                            cmark_escaping escape, int32_t c,
+                            unsigned char nextc) {
+  cmark_render_code_point(renderer, c);
+}
+
 static void S_out(cmark_renderer *renderer, cmark_node *node,
                   const char *source, bool wrap,
                   cmark_escaping escape) {
@@ -57,6 +63,13 @@ static void S_out(cmark_renderer *renderer, cmark_node *node,
     renderer->need_cr -= 1;
   }
 
+  // Characters the renderer writes back unchanged are copied in runs rather
+  // than decoded and re-encoded one by one. Spaces (when wrapping), newlines
+  // (in LITERAL), U+FFFE, U+FFFF and invalid UTF-8 still go through the loop
+  // below.
+  bool verbatim =
+      !ext && (escape == LITERAL || renderer->outc == S_outc_verbatim);
+
   while (i < length) {
     if (renderer->begin_line) {
       cmark_strbuf_put(renderer->buffer, renderer->prefix->ptr,
@@ -65,6 +78,41 @@ static void S_out(cmark_renderer *renderer, cmark_node *node,
       renderer->column = renderer->prefix->size;
     }
 
+    // With no pending break point, the width check below cannot fire.
+    if (verbatim && (renderer->width == 0 || renderer->last_breakable == 0)) {
+      int run_end = i;
+      int code_points = 0;
+      bool all_digits = true;
+      while (run_end < length) {
+        unsigned char byte = (unsigned char)source[run_end];
+        if (byte < 0x80) {
+          c = byte;
+          len = 1;
+        } else {
+          len = cmark_utf8proc_iterate((const uint8_t *)source + run_end,
+                                       length - run_end, &c);
+          // cmark_utf8proc_encode_char writes U+FFFE and U+FFFF as one byte.
+          if (len == -1 || c == 0xFFFE || c == 0xFFFF)
+            break;
+        }
+        if ((c == ' ' && wrap) || (c == '\n' && escape == LITERAL))
+          break;
+        // (char)c truncates, as the per-character path below does.
+        all_digits = all_digits && cmark_isdigit((char)c);
+        run_end += len;
+        code_points += 1;
+      }
+      if (run_end > i) {
+        cmark_strbuf_put(renderer->buffer, (const unsigned char *)source + i,
+                         run_end - i);
+        renderer->column += code_points;
+        renderer->begin_line = false;
+        renderer->begin_content = renderer->begin_content && all_digits;
+        i = run_end;
+        continue;
+      }
+    }
+
     len = cmark_utf8proc_iterate((const uint8_t *)source + i, length - i, &c);
     if (len == -1) { // error condition
       return;        // return without rendering rest of string
@@ -169,6 +217,9 @@ char *cmark_render(cmark_mem *mem, cmark_node *root, int options, int width,
   char *result;
   cmark_iter *iter = cmark_iter_new(root);
 
+  if (outc == NULL)
+    outc = S_outc_verbatim;
+
   cmark_renderer renderer = {mem,   &buf, &pref, 0,           width,
                              0,     0,    true,  true,        false,
                              false, outc, S_cr,  S_blankline, S_out,
diff --git a/ext/markly/render.h b/ext/markly/render.h
index 4a68d1e..0c6c079 100644
--- a/ext/markly/render.h
+++ b/ext/markly/render.h
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ void cmark_render_ascii(cmark_renderer *renderer, const char *s);
 
 void cmark_render_code_point(cmark_renderer *renderer, uint32_t c);
 
+// A NULL outc writes every code point unchanged, which lets S_out copy runs.
 char *cmark_render(cmark_mem *mem, cmark_node *root, int options, int width,
                    void (*outc)(cmark_renderer *, cmark_node *,
                                 cmark_escaping, int32_t,
diff --git a/releases.md b/releases.md
index a6599f2..8fd99d3 100644
--- a/releases.md
+++ b/releases.md
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 # Releases
 
+## Unreleased
+
+  - Speed up `Node#to_plaintext` by copying runs of unchanged text in one append instead of decoding and re-encoding each character (`parse` + `to_plaintext` 1.3 to 1.7 times faster).
+
 ## v0.19.0
 
   - Add `Markly::HTML_BLOCK_BLANK_LINES` for keeping consistently indented HTML content together across blank lines.
diff --git a/test/markly/node/to_plaintext.rb b/test/markly/node/to_plaintext.rb
index 95b3751..0542b23 100644
--- a/test/markly/node/to_plaintext.rb
+++ b/test/markly/node/to_plaintext.rb
@@ -44,4 +44,33 @@
 	it "can generate plaintext" do
 		expect(document.to_plaintext).to be == PLAINTEXT
 	end
+	
+	with "text the renderer copies in runs" do
+		it "wraps at the width inside a list item" do
+			document = Markly.parse("- Les lunettes Xpand X105-RF-X1 sont des lunettes 3D actives.")
+			
+			expect(document.to_plaintext(width: 20)).to be == "  - Les lunettes\n    Xpand X105-RF-X1\n    sont des\n    lunettes 3D\n    actives.\n"
+		end
+		
+		it "keeps multibyte characters intact" do
+			document = Markly.parse("> Déjà vu: l'été à Zürich 日本 😀")
+			
+			expect(document.to_plaintext).to be == "Déjà vu: l'été à Zürich 日本 😀\n"
+		end
+		
+		it "indents every line of a code block in a list item" do
+			document = Markly.parse("1. item\n\n   ```\n   code line one\n   code line two\n   ```")
+			
+			expect(document.to_plaintext).to be == "1.  item\n    \n    code line one\n    code line two\n"
+		end
+		
+		it "stops at invalid UTF-8 in a text node built through the API" do
+			document = Markly.parse("- item")
+			text = Markly::Node.new(:text)
+			text.string_content = "valid \xFF lost".b.force_encoding(Encoding::UTF_8)
+			document.first_child.first_child.first_child.append_child(text)
+			
+			expect(document.to_plaintext).to be == "  - itemvalid \n"
+		end
+	end
 end