The possibility of achieving direct overwrite capability in magneto‐optic thin films is demonstrated. By using films having a compensation temperature tens of degrees higher than the ambient temperature, the demagnetizing field can effectively be used as a bias field for thermomagnetic writing in which writing and erasing of domains are accomplished in the absence of a magnetic field. A read‐before‐write scheme is proposed to facilitate the write/erase laser trigger signal to perform overwriting in real time.