Because I always forget…to change the text editor that svn uses with the commit messages, just type in this command (if you use bash):
export SVN_EDITOR=vi
*Substitute vi for your editor of choice.
**Personally, I once was a pico/nano fan, then I moved to emacs, and now I am a vi person.
Do you frequently need to include a lengthy message? I practically always simply use the -m option to specify a message on the command line.