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 born from an interdisciplinary experiment, undertaken primarily for the joy of exploration and to see what new storytelling possibilities we can uncover. As you delve into these short pieces, you are engaging with the raw output of a project designed to be playful, to push boundaries, and simply to learn what we can do when we combine diverse creative impulses with new technological tools.
Beyond their narrative value, these stories serve as crucial data points for our project’s core research objectives. They function as testbeds for AI-assisted scriptwriting, allowing us to generate and analyze novel plot structures, character arcs, and thematic threads. Concurrently, these experiments inform our study into talent development, helping us identify the evolving skills creative professionals need to navigate interdisciplinary approaches and manage the integration of AI and immersive technologies. Each tale, therefore, is not just a story, but a step forward in understanding the future of digital literacy and collaborative creation.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
The Cold Beneath the Hearth
Author: Leaf Richards | Category: Romance | Genre: Domestic Thriller
The old cabin groaned under the weight of the endless winter, a timber shell against the vast, indifferent expanse of Northwestern Ontario. Inside, the air hummed with an unspoken tension, thick as the woodsmoke. A child, small and observant, lay on a worn rug, his world narrowed to the flickering shadows and the silent war unfolding between the two adults he called his parents.
Tide of December
Author: Leaf Richards | Category: Military Fiction | Genre: Psychological Drama
The December air hung heavy, biting at exposed skin. A thousand tiny bulbs, strung across every conceivable surface, fought back against the encroaching darkness, their colours bleeding into the damp streets. There was a hum, not of traffic, but of the collective city, a murmur of life reasserting itself after years of quiet. People moved, bundled in thick coats, their faces upturned, tracing the luminous outlines of the season. Everything felt… new, yet overlaid with a thin, almost invisible film of the past.
The Amber Hum
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Poetic / Lyrical | Genre: Sci-Fi
The boreal forest, a canvas of burnt orange and fading crimson, felt different now. A chill, deeper than the autumn air, had settled amongst the spruces, carrying with it a faint, unplaceable scent – like burnt sugar and damp batteries. The quiet hush of the woods, usually a comforting blanket, had frayed, leaving behind a persistent, low thrum that vibrated in the soles of boots and the marrow of bone, drawing two small figures deeper into its unsettling core.
The Unlit Harbinger
Author: Eva Suluk | Category: Comedy | Genre: Military Fiction
The wind, a malevolent, unseen entity, whipped through the parade square, carrying with it the scent of damp earth and distant, churning diesel. Every gust threatened to pluck the earflaps from under Captain Napson’s service cap, his face already a deepening crimson against the grey, unforgiving sky. Below the flagpole, an evergreen, monstrous in its height and girth, stood as a monument to unfulfilled festive ambition. Its branches, stiff with latent ice, seemed to mock the two figures who stood before it, contemplating their impossible task. The air bit at exposed skin, promising chilblains and frostnip, a bleak pre-Christmas forecast.
Beneath the Glass
Author: Eva Suluk | Category: Sports Fiction | Genre: Family Saga
The air in the old office felt like a poorly insulated refrigerator, carrying the faint, cloying scent of damp athletic tape and stale coffee. Outside, the night pressed in, a black velvet canvas dotted with the electric jewels of Christmas, promising a warmth the thin walls of the O’Connell rink could never truly deliver. Here, amidst the yellowing photographs of forgotten triumphs, the future felt less like a promise and more like a gamble.
Design Notes and Applied Research
This collection presents a notable breadth of genres, from Domestic Thriller to Sci-Fi, alongside varied subject categories like Sports Fiction and Poetic / Lyrical prose. This diversity is a direct reflection of our skills development objective, challenging participants to adapt to the distinct structural and tonal demands of each form. The application of these skills within a digital framework highlights how technology facilitates the synthesis of disparate narrative conventions and accelerates creative output.
As an inquiry into storytelling’s evolution, this project proved to be a valuable and engaging experiment. The exercise confirmed the capacity of digital platforms to support rapid development across a spectrum of modes, from intimate Psychological Drama to expansive Military Fiction. This collection stands as a compelling record of the dynamic interplay between foundational artistic craft and the processes of digital transformation.
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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