Weekly Unfinished Tales and Short Stories from our Dataset
This daily collection offers a curated glimpse into the ‘Unfinished Tales and Short Stories’ project, an interdisciplinary exploration into the frontiers of narrative. Each piece represents a unique experiment drawn from our ongoing creative arts and research program, designed to push the boundaries of conventional storytelling and genre expectations.
These narratives serve a dual purpose within the project: they are invaluable datasets for our AI-Assisted Storytelling and Scriptwriting research, providing diverse plot structures and character dynamics for analysis. Simultaneously, they function as dynamic case studies for Talent Development, illuminating the evolving skills required for creative professionals navigating AI and immersive technologies, digital literacy, and collaborative interdisciplinary approaches.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
Salt-Stained Scores
Author: Eva Suluk | Category: Psychological Thriller | Genre: Satire
Lena and Sam walk along a desolate, windswept beach at dusk, their conversation revolving around the dystopian ‘Collective Contribution Initiative’ and its oppressive social credit system, which dictates every aspect of their lives.
Orange Juice and First Looks
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Boys Love (BL) | Genre: Romance
In the bustling university cafeteria, amidst the chaotic energy of the new semester, Caleb accidentally collides with Noah, resulting in a dramatic orange juice spill that initiates an unexpected encounter between the two young men.
Maple Syrup and Cold Feet
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Hardboiled Noir | Genre: Slice of Life
A spring morning at Mrs. Thomas’s kitchen table in Northwestern Ontario. The air is cool, the light muted. Three young people – Tyler, Sandra, Ben – and two older community members – Mrs. Thomas, Mr. Jenkins – are gathered. They are discussing the ambitious plan to convert the disused recreation hall basement into an arts and culture space, but the conversation is fraught with practical concerns, cynical observations, and the weight of past failures.
The Canvas of Winter
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Literary | Genre: Romance
Steven and Jane, two teenagers, are in Professor Sterling’s office on a cold winter day. They are engaged in a discussion about the profound impacts of art, transitioning from philosophical debate to the exciting proposition of a new community arts project.
The Shifting Canvas
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Allegorical | Genre: Action-Adventure
Three teenagers, Leonard, Cassie, and Sara, are navigating a city that is physically dissolving and transforming into surreal imagery. They are in desperate search of their art history professor, Ed Caldwell, who they hope holds answers. They find him in a shifting university archive, where he calmly explains the allegorical importance of art and imagination as the only means to navigate or even reconstruct their disintegrating reality. As the surreal threats escalate, they are forced to apply these abstract concepts to find a way forward.
Design Notes and Applied Research
This daily collection, encompassing genres from satire and romance to action-adventure, alongside subjects like psychological thriller, Western BL, and hardboiled noir, directly reflects our project’s focus on skills development. Navigating such diverse narrative structures and thematic explorations cultivates the adaptability and technical proficiency essential for contemporary artists. It showcases how creators refine their craft, embracing new forms and cross-genre approaches in response to the digital transformation of artistic expression.
The assembly of these stories has proven to be an engaging and insightful experiment for the Arts Incubator. This collection vividly illustrates how a broad spectrum of artistic voices can contribute to the ongoing dialogue around skill enhancement and the digital evolution of storytelling. The project successfully demonstrated the creative potential unleashed when artists explore varied genres and subjects within a digitally transformed arts ecosystem.
About the Project
The Unfinished Tales and Short Stories collection was an interdisciplinary arts and narrative storytelling experiment in 2025. It was part of a creative arts and participatory research project by The Arts Incubator Winnipeg and the Art Borups Corners collectives. It focuses on two key areas: AI-Assisted Storytelling and Scriptwriting, exploring AI tools for generating ideas, plot structures, and story arcs; and Talent Development and Training, studying digital skills, literacy and training needs for creative professionals by experimenting with AI and immersive technologies to inform future projects. Funding and support were generously provided by the Ontario Arts Council Multi and Inter-Arts Projects program and the Government of Ontario. We thank them for supporting the arts, digital transformation, and applied Artificial Intelligence (AI) research.
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