Conflict and Growth
These stories are frozen moments of decision and action. As unfinished tales, they lack a final verdict, leaving the moral and narrative weight in the hands of the reader. This format encourages active interpretation, asking the audience to examine the clues provided and construct a logical progression for the events described.
We are utilizing this collection to research the intersection of interdisciplinary arts and applied artificial intelligence. The project investigates the utility of digital tools as partners in the writing process, specifically within storytelling and scriptwriting. It is an effort to advance digital literacy skills through practical, creative application.
This post focuses on themes of tension and personal development, featuring Domestic Thrillers, Military Fiction, and Coming-of-Age stories. The authors contributing to this set are Leaf Richards and Jamie F. Bell. Their work explores the pressures placed on individuals in both private and professional spheres.
We invite you to immerse yourself in these incomplete scenes. Read through the available text and challenge yourself to envision the resolution that these characters deserve.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
This project presents a unique fusion of domestic thrillers, military fiction, and coming-of-age narratives, enriched by moments of comedic misadventure and romance. Through the lens of gritty realism and Boys Love (BL), we offer short stories that exemplify the changing tides of publishing. Our mission is to advance digital literacy by harnessing creative technology and AI-assisted narrative, ensuring that every contemporary fiction piece resonates deeply in the digital age.
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.
The Mud-Spattered Blueprint
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Comedic Misadventure | Genre: Military Fiction
A biting spring wind, still carrying the lingering memory of winter’s bite, whipped around the makeshift command centre. Canvas flaps, stiff with dried mud, strained against their fastenings, rattling a persistent, urgent rhythm. Outside, the world was a study in grey and brown, interrupted by sporadic patches of tenacious, pale green struggling to push through the thawing earth. The air, thick with the damp scent of wet soil and exhaust fumes, clung to everything, a constant, gritty reminder of their provisional existence. Inside, the single bare bulb hummed a lonely tune, casting a weak, jaundiced light over a cluster of young faces etched with a peculiar mix of fatigue and an almost desperate optimism.
A Gust of Sulphur and Sky
Author: Leaf Richards | Category: Boys Love (BL) | Genre: Contemporary Fiction
The valley floor, usually a patchwork of parched earth and stubborn sage, had turned into a treacherous mire. Recent spring rains had carved new gullies, swollen the seasonal creeks, and left the track leading to the north pasture a ribbon of thick, clinging clay. The air tasted of damp soil and the distant, metallic tang of a spring storm still brewing over the ragged peaks. The quad bike, an ancient, rust-pocked beast, was mired halfway to its axles, its engine long since choked into silence, its metallic shell reflecting the bruised violet of the overhead clouds.
The First Spill
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Boys Love (BL) | Genre: Coming-of-Age
Caleb, a nervous first-year university student, accidentally spills a tray of chili all over Jimmy, a composed and theatrically-spoken second-year, during their first week in the bustling campus cafeteria.
A Confluence of Fading Light
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Gritty Realism | Genre: Contemporary Fiction
The air, thick and unmoving, still held the day’s oppressive heat, even as the sky deepened to a bruised plum-purple where the sun had just sunk below the city line. A lingering orange stain smudged the horizon, a badly wiped brushstroke. Cassian dragged a boot through the gravel path, the sound a soft, gritty rasp that felt too loud in the sudden quiet of the park. It was too hot for late August, the kind of heavy, still heat that clung to your skin, making your shirt feel like a second, damp skin, even after the light had gone. The air smelled of cut grass, recently mown but now starting to ferment, and something else – decay, maybe, or just the dampness rising from the river that wound its lazy, indifferent way through the park’s shadowed heart.
About the Project
By design, these stories have no beginning and no end. Many stories are fictional, but many others are not. They are snapshots from worlds that never fully exist, inviting you to imagine what comes before and what happens next. We had fun exploring this project, and hope you will too.
The Unfinished Tales and Short Stories collection is part of an experimental, creative arts and research program by The Arts Incubator Winnipeg and the Art Borups Corners collectives. Each chapter is an interdisciplinary arts and narrative storytelling experiment focused on two key areas: AI-Assisted Scriptwriting, where researchers explore using AI to generate story ideas, plot structures, and alternative story arcs to enhance creative development; and Talent Development and Training, where the project studies the necessary skills for creative professionals to manage AI and immersive technologies in production, helping to inform future training curricula. The project was made possible with funding and support from the Ontario Arts Council Multi and Inter-Arts Projects program and the Government of Ontario. We thank them for supporting the arts, digital transformation research and innovation in Ontario.
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