I do a lot of writing with TextEdit, using a keyboard shortcut with the macro editor QuicKeys. My SL macro would switch to or open TextEdit, close any previous TextEdit document using the built-in Mac keyboard shortcut Command+D (which closes a window without saving). Lion has evidently done away with the Command+D shortcut, so my macro wouldn't work. Here is a simple script that opens or switches to TextEdit, closes (without saving) any note that is there, and opens a new note:
tell application "TextEdit" activate try close window 1 saving no end try make new document end tell
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110721075908624