Saturday, 5 December 2009

Key beats of Towards Java

Here's what I'm currently thinking in terms of beats for Towards Java

Prologue (well actually it sets the story up as a flashback)

1st act:

Get on the same bus
Talk at the roadside restaurant. Not a total success
Get to Labuanbajo and Sean gives up his room to Jules and goes to find another
They find themselves on the same boat to Komodo. Jules to begin with would rather talk to the other passengers but in the end starts talking to Sean.
They agree to eat at the same place and have enough fun to decide to travel together to the Gilis.

2nd Act:

The trip to the Gilis is long and draining. They get ripped off and sent in the wrong direction. Then Jules gets ill and they have to miss a bus and stay in a strange little town for a night.
Eventually they make it to the paradise of Gili Meno. A large bond has been formed and the attraction is impossible to miss. They accidentally get given a double bed rather than twins but don't complain too much. Go for dinner and then are walking back along the beach to their hut when suddenly Sean reveals he has a girlfriend in England. He'd decided to dump her before he went to travelling but didn't have the balls to do it on the last night so is going to have to do it when he gets home.
Jules flips out. Sean spends the night sleeping outside on the porch.

Turning point

The next morning Jules finds Sean has left and paid for the room. She goes to Gili Trawangan but is short on funds. She gets a dorm room and hangs out with some fun if seriously brash Australians. She bumps into Sean and tries to pay her share but Sean won't hear of it. He knows she's running short on cash. He proposes that if they bump into each other on Bali she can pay him back then. Seeing Jules flirting with the Australians is too much for Sean and he gets a boat of the island that very night.

The next day he heads off to Bali where he hears a story about a western man who runs a village up in the mountains. That night he goes to a Balinese monkey dance and sees Jules. At the end Jules comes up to him and wordlessly gives him his money.

Sean goes biking with some people he's met to go meet this western man and see his weird position as essentially a chief. He spends most of the day there and a minivan appears bringing a bunch of people including Jules. He pretends not to see her. And bikes back on his own. On the way back he crashes into a ditch and concusses himself. He's struggling to stand up and there's no way he can bike back to Ubud.

3rd Act

The minivan with Jules drives past and picks him up. Jules takes care of him and takes him back to his hotel.

That night she comes to see how he's doing and they go to get something to eat. They have a great night, playing with the family who own the restaurant and everything is perfect. But they agree that nothing can happen now and that it would just ruin everything if they saw each other back in England.

The next morning Sean wakes up and realises it's a stupid idea. He has to see her, he runs to her hotel room but the taxi taking her to the airport has already gone.

Epilogue: Sean is sitting in a nice, trendy brunch place in East london with mates but can't concentrate. Suddenly he realises that this date is the date Jules is meant to be coming back from all her travels. He sits there for ages, pondering if he should go. Eventually he tells his friends he has to leave.

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