5 Minute Freewrite - Prompt: Red

Red:
The cherries were ripe again, the boughs heavy with the bright red globes. In the morning, early, we had clambered the wall of the manor house garden, where we sat, daring each other to run across the lawn and fetch the fruit from the tree. It was our rite of passage. Our own act of rebellion against those who had when we had not.

Now the manor is a museum. A cherry orchard stretches from the wall to the one old tree, the discarded stones of our youth taken root. We sit on blankets with our families, marvelling at the clouds of blossom, sharing light stories of darker days while our children huddle, heads together, plotting their own quiet revolutions.

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Time to get back to posting up some writing. I first saw the #freewrite tag on @improv's blog, way back, but it's never been something I can do. My thoughts form too slowly. I find myself looping back constantly to where I started. I read and reread, I stumble over tenses, I hunt for words. I'm always impressed with people for whom writing just flows. I see them in cafes occasionally, frantically scribbling or fingers-a-blur.

Now we're in NaNoWriMo (which I'm not doing - NoNaNoWriMo) I'm motivated to work on my pace. The #freewrite tag has grown into a daily event, taken on by @mariannewest, each day with its own prompt. This feels like a good process for me to follow. A morning work-out. Some training wheels while I learn to build up speed. So I wrote the above piece this morning. I'll happily admit it took ten minutes rather than five. I am, at least, now facing in the right direction.

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