Books. The thing is not to do it, writing I mean. ANYTHING to put off beginning: telephone, take the dogs out, read yet another ridiculous mag, & then when one has begun it's lovely & v. difficult to stop. Do you find that? I can't do anything unless I've got all the things to do it with just right, paper & soft B pencils sharpened which they soon aren't because of the softth*. I wish I could type, one could see what it looks like instead of waiting on someone else to do it a little bit wrong. I bought a hugely expensive typewriter thinking I'd try but somehow haven't. There have been so many distractions lately that I've done 0, well nearly 0. Hopeless.
- Deborah to Jessica, 6 September 1987
from the book: The Mitfords Letters Between Six Sisters Edited by Charlotte Mosley
* softth? I have no idea if that is a word in a different language or a personal term shared or if it was a typo in the book.
