Weekly Unfinished Tales and Short Stories from our Dataset
Welcome to our daily collection of narrative experiments, a curated selection of short stories drawn from our ongoing creative arts and research program, ‘Unfinished Tales.’ This interdisciplinary initiative was undertaken primarily for the joy of exploration, allowing us to experiment with narrative forms and storytelling techniques simply to see what we could do and what we could learn from the process!
These narrative fragments serve a dual purpose within our research framework. For our study of AI-Assisted Scriptwriting, they act as valuable data points, illustrating how generative models can produce diverse genre-specific ideas, plot structures, and compelling character dynamics. Concurrently, these stories inform our Talent Development objectives by highlighting the evolving skills required for creative professionals to manage AI tools, fostering digital literacy, and encouraging the interdisciplinary approaches essential for navigating the future of immersive and technologically-integrated storytelling.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
The Bloom
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Post-Apocalyptic Survival | Genre: Noir
The city, once a bustling metropolis, now lay entombed in a relentless winter, its skeletal structures draped in a shroud of pristine, unforgiving snow. A biting wind, sharp as a whetted blade, scoured the desolate avenues, carrying with it the faint, metallic tang of decay and the omnipresent, shuffling whisper of the world’s undone. It was a landscape of breathtaking, albeit morbid, beauty, where every frosted lamppost and shattered windowpane sang a melancholic hymn of what was lost.
The Ascent of Bone-Peak
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Post-Apocalyptic Survival | Genre: Action-Adventure
The wind howled a mournful dirge, a sound that had become the constant soundtrack to their fractured world. Snow, fine as powdered bone, swirled around the skeletal remains of what was once a grand suspension bridge, now a rusted, sagging monument to a forgotten age. Below, the river, a dark serpent of slush and ice, gnawed at the foundations. Every creak of stressed metal, every groan of the ancient structure, echoed the fragile grip on life held by the two figures traversing its treacherous span.
Copper and Kindling
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Boys Love (BL) | Genre: Dystopian
The sun, a persistent, brassy eye, beat down on the warped asphalt. Everything shimmered, a mirage of heat and dust that made the abandoned highway a ribbon of mercury. Overgrown kudzu and tenacious summer weeds clawed at the skeletal remains of what was once a small-town diner, its ‘OPEN’ sign hanging askew, a faded promise swallowed by silence. The air hummed with cicadas and the distant, almost musical whine of something mechanical, a sound that always felt wrong out here.
Summer’s Sour Bounty
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Post-Apocalyptic Survival | Genre: Dark Comedy
The air shimmered, thick and hot, over the cracked tarmac. A perpetual summer haze blurred the distant skeletal remains of what used to be telephone poles, their wires long since snapped or scavenged. The scent of baked dust and something vaguely organic, perpetually rotting, clung to the back of Rowen’s throat. Flies, thick and buzzing, moved in lazy circles around puddles of stagnant water that held the oily sheen of decay. Everything felt like it was simmering, slowly cooking under the unrelenting glare of a sun that seemed entirely indifferent to the world it illuminated.
Glacial Stain
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Post-Apocalyptic Survival | Genre: Horror
The world had long forgotten the colour of green. Now, it was a study in desaturated greys and bruised whites, an unending expanse of ice and hard-packed snow stretching to a sky the colour of old lead. The air itself felt like a physical weight, cold enough to ache in the bones, carrying with it the scent of frozen earth and distant, unburnt ash. Here, in the forgotten northern reaches, survival was less a fight and more a slow, constant negotiation with the elements, punctuated by sudden, brutal disruptions.
Design Notes and Applied Research
This collection demonstrates a significant exploration of skills development through its engagement with established genres such as Noir, Dystopian, and Horror. By navigating the distinct conventions of these forms, alongside niche subjects like Post-Apocalyptic Survival and Boys Love (BL), our creators honed their abilities in narrative structure, world-building, and tonal control. This synthesis of diverse genres and themes exemplifies how digital platforms facilitate new combinations and reinterpretations of traditional storytelling.
The creative output from this exercise represents a compelling and dynamic experiment for our program. The juxtaposition of dark comedy with action-adventure and other disparate styles provided a valuable space for artistic risk-taking and innovation. As an archive, this collection serves as a noteworthy record of the program’s success in fostering creative exploration within the evolving digital landscape of the arts.
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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