From the Hospital Ward to High Stakes
These writings are partial scenes and unfinished tales, stripping away the traditional exposition and resolution to focus entirely on the immediate action. It is an format that mimics the way we often encounter stories in real life—in fragments and passing moments. The lack of a conclusion is a feature, not a bug, designed to stimulate your interpretative faculties.
As part of an experimental program, this work resides at the intersection of human creativity, interdisciplinary arts, and applied artificial intelligence research. The intention is to understand how digital tools can act as a partner in the writing process. This exploration helps in shaping new forms of storytelling and scriptwriting, ultimately enhancing digital literacy skills and professional workflows.
From the quiet observation of Slice of Life to the urgency of Medical Drama and Investigative Thrillers, this post covers a wide emotional range. All included short stories are written by Jamie F. Bell. The variety of genres demonstrates the flexibility of the writing tools and the breadth of the narrative focus.
We encourage you to read these excerpts and imagine the broader context yourself. Consider these stories as a starting point, and let your own creativity supply the resolution that the text leaves unspoken.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
This compilation bridges the gap between high-stakes investigative thrillers and the gritty realism of medical dramas, firmly rooted in literary fiction. Our project explores the potential of AI-assisted narrative to transform traditional publishing and expand the boundaries of digital literacy. Readers will discover short stories that blend supernatural mystery with slice of life elements, demonstrating how creative technology can enhance the depth of action-adventure and dramatic storytelling.
Inheritance by Weathering
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Slice of Life | Genre: Slice of Life
I don’t have a history like this. My family tree is more of a shrub, patchy and prone to dropping leaves unexpectedly. We don’t have deep roots; we have shallow, tangled ones that we packed up and moved every few years. So walking through St. Boniface feels like visiting another planet. Here, history isn’t just in a museum; it’s in the street names, the French on the ghost signs, the heavy stone of the cathedral that burned but refused to fall. It’s in the air.
The Old Wing’s Grip
Category: Supernatural Mystery | Genre: Medical Drama
Late at night, in a hospital residents’ lounge in Northwestern Ontario, two medical residents, Lindsay and Sam, sift through black and white photographs meant for a local art exhibit, but their discussion quickly turns to a disturbing pattern of unexplained patient deaths and unsettling anomalies captured in their images from the hospital’s old wing.
A Column Inch of Silence
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Gritty Realism | Genre: Investigative Thriller
The newspaper’s archive—the morgue, as the old-timers called it—resided in the sub-basement, a place of profound stillness and the dry, papery smell of history. Rows of looming metal shelves stretched into a dusty gloom, packed tight with yellowing clippings and bound volumes of broadsheets. The only sound was the low hum of a dehumidifier, a mechanical ghost endlessly sighing against the decay of time. Here, amidst the recorded lives and catalogued deaths, Kenny felt at home.
Unforeseen Frost
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Boys Love (BL) | Genre: Action-Adventure
The world was a watercolour of grey and white, the air sharp enough to ache in the lungs. Dylan pushed through snowdrifts that swallowed his worn boots whole, the silence of the Canadian backcountry pressing in, broken only by the rasp of his own breathing and the soft crunch of hard-packed snow. A single, thin plume of smoke, barely visible against the low sky, twisted upwards from where no smoke ought to be, an unnatural flag in the vast, unforgiving expanse.
A Fading Light
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Literary Fiction | Genre: Literary Fiction
The mid-summer air hung thick and greasy over downtown Winnipeg, a tangible weight that pressed against the old brick of the art centre. Inside, the recycled air conditioning wheezed a tired protest, a low, mechanical hum that became another layer in the atmospheric soup. Light, diffused through grime-streaked windows, painted the lecture room in shades of sickly yellow and grey, making the faces of the young adults gathered there seem drawn and faintly unwell.
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.
About the Author
