Weekly Unfinished Tales and Short Stories from our Dataset
Welcome to our daily collection of narrative experiments, drawn from the dataset of our ongoing ‘Unfinished Tales’ project. This interdisciplinary arts and storytelling program was undertaken first and foremost for fun, and to explore the creative possibilities at the intersection of human and machine collaboration. These short stories represent fragments and explorations from that process, offering a glimpse into our journey to learn what we can do!
These narrative vignettes serve the project’s core research goals in two significant ways. For our work in AI-Assisted Scriptwriting, they act as foundational material for generating novel plot structures, exploring alternative character arcs, and testing generative models for thematic consistency. Concurrently, they are instrumental in our Talent Development studies, providing complex scenarios to help us understand the evolving skills creative professionals need to manage AI, foster digital literacy, and navigate new interdisciplinary approaches in immersive storytelling.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
The White Silence
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Psychological Drama | Genre: Psychological Drama
A remote cabin, buried deep in a snow-choked forest, becomes the stage for a solitary arrival. The air is thick with a preternatural quiet, hinting at forgotten events and the unsettling persistence of memory as winter’s chill begins to seep into the very walls.
The Chill
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Slice of Life | Genre: Domestic Thriller
The air hung heavy with the cloying sweetness of gingerbread and the sharper, metallic tang of the cold outside, seeping in through the old window frames. Snow, fine as icing sugar, dusted the sill, blurring the sharp edges of the neighbouring houses. Inside, the fairy lights on the artificial tree pulsed a sickly yellow, casting long, wavering shadows across the floral wallpaper, making the familiar living room feel like a stranger’s house. A faint, almost imperceptible hum emanated from the refrigerator in the kitchen, a low thrum beneath the forced cheer of piped-in carols, a sound Simon had only just started to notice, a constant, low-frequency anxiety.
A Bitter Thaw
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Cozy Mystery | Genre: Contemporary Fiction
The persistent April rain, a dull grey curtain against the window, seemed to mirror the grey landscape inside. Dust motes, usually vibrant in the infrequent sun, lay dormant on the polished surfaces. The apartment felt too still, too heavy, burdened by unspoken recollections and the quiet hum of an old refrigerator in the kitchen.
A Stillness Beneath the Tinsel
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Coming-of-Age | Genre: Contemporary Drama
A faint, electric hum from the fairy lights strung haphazardly across the living room window was the loudest thing in the house. Outside, the night pressed in, a heavy blanket of fresh snow muffling the usual city rumble, leaving only the distant, mournful cry of a single car horn. Inside, the air was thick with the ghost of pine needles and burnt sugar, a cloying sweetness that clung to the back of Leo’s throat.
Ghost Snow
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Grimdark Fantasy | Genre: Literary Fiction
The old cottage hummed with the barely contained chill of a brewing winter storm, its single propane heater fighting a losing battle against the encroaching cold. Outside, the world was rapidly blurring into a monochrome landscape of white, snow already piled against the sills, muffling the usual creaks and groans of the ancient structure. Inside, the quiet was thick, heavy, punctuated only by the crackle of the dwindling fire and the distant, rhythmic drip of a leaky faucet from the kitchen.
Design Notes and Applied Research
This collection demonstrates a significant advancement in narrative craft, directly aligning with our program’s focus on skills development. The genres represented, from the intricate plotting of Domestic Thrillers to the nuanced character work of Literary Fiction, showcase a deliberate focus on building suspense, interiority, and thematic resonance. The range of subject categories further highlights this versatility, challenging creators to navigate the distinct structural and tonal demands of forms as varied as Cozy Mystery and Grimdark Fantasy.
Presenting these diverse stories together serves as a compelling investigation into the digital transformation of storytelling. The juxtaposition of intimate Slice of Life narratives with high-stakes Psychological Drama mirrors the way audiences consume varied content in a modern digital space. As an exercise in curation and presentation, this collection has proven to be a dynamic and highly instructive experiment for the Arts Incubator.
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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