Weekly Unfinished Tales and Short Stories from our Dataset
Welcome to our weekly dispatch from the ‘Unfinished Tales and Short Stories’ collection, an ongoing creative arts and research program. These narrative fragments are the direct result of an interdisciplinary experiment, undertaken simply for the fun of it, and to explore the evolving landscape of storytelling. We wanted to see what we could do, what stories would emerge, and what we could learn from the process of creation itself.
These stories serve as valuable artifacts for our project’s core objectives. For our research into AI-Assisted Scriptwriting, they provide a rich dataset for analyzing plot structures, generating alternative arcs, and exploring narrative potential. Concurrently, they are instrumental in our Talent Development studies, helping us identify and understand the emerging skills creative professionals require to navigate interdisciplinary approaches, digital literacy, and the integration of new technologies into their craft.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
Unfurling Tarnished Copper
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Young Adult (YA) | Genre: Dystopian
The prairie city, usually stoic under the expansive autumn sky, hummed with a low, electric thrum beneath a veneer of carefully maintained order. Leaves, the colour of tarnished copper and dried blood, skittered across the neatly swept boulevards, driven by a wind that carried the metallic tang of coming snow and the faint, ever-present scent of ozone from the omnipresent atmospheric monitors. It was an afternoon like any other, designed for predictable progression, until a flicker on a public display shifted the meticulously curated civic calm.
A Stain on Portage
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Domestic Thriller | Genre: Coming-of-Age
The air, already brittle with the sharp edge of late October, seemed to carry an extra weight downtown. Every gust of wind off the river brought not just the scent of wet leaves and exhaust fumes, but something else, something indefinable yet heavy, like static electricity before a storm. The usual rumble of city life, the brassy clang of the bus brakes, the distant drone of traffic, felt muted, as if the city itself was holding its breath. Yellow and rust-coloured leaves, caught in the endless churn of concrete and brick, skittered across the pavements, gathering in damp, forgotten piles in the sheltered corners of building entrances.
A Winter Unveiling in the Exchange
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Boys Love (BL) | Genre: Legal Thriller
The mid-afternoon sun, a pale, watery orb behind the low-slung clouds, did little to thaw the city’s brittle edges. Below, the sidewalks of Winnipeg’s Exchange District were slick with compacted snow, reflecting the diffused light in a myriad of grey-white gleams. James Davies, chin tucked into the collar of his heavy wool coat, navigated the indifferent crush of pedestrians, a briefcase clamped under his arm like a vital organ. The city hummed around him, a low, constant vibration that seemed to emanate from the very frozen earth, carrying with it the scent of exhaust fumes and the promise of more snowfall. He was late, or rather, precisely on time, which, in his world, felt indistinguishable from late.
The Sterile Bloom
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Comedy | Genre: Sci-Fi
The pavement in front of the Exchange District’s oldest bank building still bled melting snow, grey rivulets snaking towards overwhelmed drains. It was a Saturday morning, but the usual early buzz of delivery trucks and coffee-scented activity was replaced by a rigid cordon of police tape and the brittle crackle of walkie-talkies. Something impossible had happened here, something that Anette, seventy-two and having seen too much, found herself staring at with a familiar, weary disbelief that went beyond mere crime scenes.
A Sprouting Secret
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Superhero | Genre: Fantasy
The spring air in Winnipeg held a specific crispness, a promise of warmth that hadn’t quite delivered. Down Corydon Avenue, the usual city hum—a blend of distant traffic, snippets of conversation from sidewalk cafes, and the metallic clang of a passing streetcar—created a familiar, if somewhat dull, soundtrack. Simon walked with his hands in his pockets, shoulders hunched against a breeze that still carried winter’s bite, oblivious to the subtle shift beneath his feet that would soon irrevocably alter his carefully constructed reality.
Design Notes and Applied Research
This collection showcases a significant range of narrative skills, merging established genres like Legal Thrillers and Fantasy with contemporary subjects such as Boys Love (BL). This fusion demonstrates our participants’ ability to adapt core storytelling principles to diverse creative frameworks. Each piece serves as a practical application of character development, world-building, and plot construction, reflecting the central ‘skills development’ objective of our program.
Thematically, these stories also engage directly with the ‘digital transformation’ of the arts, particularly within the Dystopian and Sci-Fi entries. The project itself was a valuable experiment, exploring how niche subjects and classic genres can be synthesized for modern audiences and digital platforms. The resulting collection is a dynamic and engaging testament to the creative possibilities that emerge from this intersection of skill and innovation.
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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