Weekly Unfinished Tales and Short Stories from our Dataset
Welcome to our weekly digest from the “Unfinished Tales and Short Stories” collection, an ongoing creative arts and research program dedicated to narrative experimentation. These fragments represent the raw output and collaborative explorations from our dataset, born from a simple yet compelling curiosity. The project was fundamentally undertaken for fun, and to learn what we can do when we combine human creativity with emerging narrative technologies, pushing the boundaries of traditional storytelling to see what new forms might emerge.
These narrative seeds directly serve the project’s core objectives in both AI-Assisted Scriptwriting and Talent Development. For our scriptwriting research, each story acts as a unique dataset to test AI’s capacity for generating compelling plot structures, alternative character arcs, and atmospheric world-building. Concurrently, they form a crucial part of our talent development studies, providing tangible case studies for creative professionals learning to manage AI tools, navigate interdisciplinary workflows, and develop the digital literacy essential for shaping the future of immersive and technologically-integrated narratives.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
Chrome Dreams and Tarnished Delights
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Comedic Misadventure | Genre: Cyberpunk
The oppressive summer air, thick and viscous as warm syrup, clung to the reeking city. Above, the sky, a bruised purple from perpetual smog, bled into the kaleidoscopic glow of holographic advertisements that pulsed across the megascrapers. Below, amidst the cacophony of a thousand distant data streams, the Grand Orbital Carnival thrummed, a festering bloom of garish light and manufactured joy, drawing in the weary, the hopeful, and the merely curious, promising escape within its flimsy, corporate-sponsored embrace.
The Plastic Petals of Paradise
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Journalistic | Genre: Satire
The air, thick with the damp, earthy scent of a recently roused forest, clung to everything. Bare branches of birch, still grey and skeletal, scratched against the pale spring sky, while below, a determined green fuzz pushed through last year’s decomposing leaves. Mud, rich and dark, sucked at boot soles along the single track leading deeper into the valley. A low mist, smelling faintly of pine and cold soil, threaded through the trees, obscuring the upper reaches of what promised to be a pristine, if chilly, landscape. The only sound, initially, was the drip of water from melting ice, a ceaseless, monotonous rhythm, broken only by the distant, incongruous thrum of something large and mechanical.
Summer’s Sinking Breath
Author: Eva Suluk | Category: Family Saga | Genre: Thriller
The oppressive heat of a late summer afternoon draped itself over Blackwood Grange like a shroud. Ivy, thick and ravenous, throttled the ancient stone, its tendrils reaching into fractured window panes, drawing shadows across rooms that had known little light for decades. A silence, heavy and humid, clung to the air, broken only by the distant, lethargic hum of unseen insects and the occasional, mournful creak of settling timber. Jeff’s arrival was not heralded by fanfare, merely the crunch of his tyres on the loose gravel drive, a sound absorbed almost entirely by the suffocating density of the overgrown grounds.
The Harlequin’s Glare through the Flurry
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Horror | Genre: Horror
The world outside Desmond’s cracked window was a blurred canvas of white, an unending blizzard that had swallowed the small mountain town whole. Inside, the motel room hummed with the dry, recycled heat of a failing unit, smelling faintly of stale coffee and desperation.
The Humiliation
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Journalistic | Genre: Satire
The oppressive summer air, thick with the scent of pine and something vaguely chemical, hung heavy over the Arcadian Enclave. Beyond the hand-carved, intricately locked gates that boasted ‘Sanctuary for the Seekers,’ the world outside felt like a fading rumour. Here, a perverse kind of peace reigned, woven from forced smiles and the constant, low thrum of self-congratulatory purpose. Cassidy, perched precariously on a rough-hewn bench in the ‘Communal Harmony Pavilion,’ felt her shirt stick to her back, the polyester chafing against her skin. The humidity was a constant, almost physical presence, pressing down, making every breath a conscious effort. It was a place designed to soothe, yet it humled with an underlying current of frantic energy, a manufactured serenity that felt dangerously close to snapping.
Design Notes and Applied Research
This collection features a compelling range of genres, from cyberpunk and satire to thriller and horror, applied to subjects as varied as journalistic inquiry and family sagas. The deliberate use of these distinct narrative forms demonstrates a focused development of specialized creative skills, including tonal control, world-building, and suspense. These selections directly confront the program’s theme of digital transformation, using speculative and satirical lenses to examine our technological landscape.
As a creative exercise, this anthology highlights the dynamic potential that emerges when artists are encouraged to work across diverse narrative categories. The project served as a valuable exploration into the modern storyteller’s toolkit, confirming the effectiveness of genre conventions in addressing contemporary issues. The resulting works stand as a testament to the innovative possibilities inherent in this intersection of artistic skill and digital evolution.
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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