Snapshots of the Everyday
Fiction often mirrors reality, but here we present the reflection in shards. These unfinished tales act as distinct moments captured in time, lacking the prelude and the aftermath that typically cushion a story. By removing the traditional beginning and end, we highlight the texture of the scene itself, asking the reader to reconstruct the larger picture from specific, isolated interactions and dialogue.
This project represents an ongoing investigation into the collaboration between human writers and applied artificial intelligence. It is an initiative designed to test the capabilities of digital tools in scriptwriting and storytelling. The goal is to enhance digital literacy and optimize creative workflows, demonstrating how technology can assist in the generation of emotional resonance and narrative structure.
Today’s focus leans heavily into the interpersonal and the emotional. The featured works explore Slice of Life realism, Contemporary Drama, and the specific dynamics of Young Adult Contemporary and Western Style Boys Love. This showcase highlights the contributions of authors Tony Eetak and Jamie F. Bell, whose characters navigate complex relationships in these brief glimpses.
As you engage with these stories, consider the possibilities left unsaid. Without a prescribed conclusion, the emotional weight of these scenes depends entirely on your perspective. We encourage you to inhabit these moments and determine for yourself where the characters go when the text abruptly stops.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
This collection delves into a diverse array of themes ranging from slice of life and contemporary drama to unexpected elements like grimdark fantasy and hardboiled noir. As we explore the future of publishing, our goal is to highlight the synergy between creative technology and traditional storytelling forms, including western style boys love and journalistic approaches. By presenting these innovative short stories, we contribute to the ongoing dialogue regarding digital literacy and AI-assisted narrative, offering readers a glimpse into how young adult contemporary and mystery genres are evolving in the digital age.
On Batholiths and Fibre Optics
Author: Tony Eetak | Category: Slice of Life | Genre: Slice of Life
The team struggles with equipment failure in the freezing autumn air of the Revell site before retreating to their workshop to discover a surprising connection with a university in China.
The Tinsel
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Grimdark Fantasy | Genre: Contemporary Drama
The old house exhaled a sigh of perpetual cold, a thin layer of hoarfrost clinging to the inside of the kitchen windowpane. Dust motes, heavy and grey, danced reluctantly in the weak, early afternoon light that struggled through the overcast December sky. A large, battered cardboard box, taped shut with ancient, yellowed strips, sat accusingly by the hearth, its contents a silent, potent reminder of celebrations long past and wounds still unhealed.
A Glimpse Through Grime
Author: Tony Eetak | Category: Hardboiled Noir | Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
The air inside the abandoned municipal recreation centre hung heavy, smelling of damp concrete and something metallic – not quite rust, but more like the ghosts of forgotten lockers and chlorinated youth. Dust motes danced in the sparse beams of afternoon light that pierced the grimy, high-set windows, illuminating a path through the debris. Water stains bled down the walls like ancient, weeping wounds, and the faint, persistent drip from some unseen leak echoed through the vast, hollow space. This place, once vibrant with the shouts and splashes of summer, now lay in an expectant hush, a monument to a past life awaiting its opaque transformation.
A Hollow Echo on the Lake
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Mystery | Genre: Western Style Boys Love
On a old, splintered fishing dock overlooking a vast Northwestern Ontario lake at twilight, two friends, Jamie and Cole, have a deeply emotional and revealing conversation about their past, their diverging futures, and the unspoken feelings between them, circling around a shared, unresolved memory of a mysterious journal.
The Intolerable Geometry of ‘Fine’
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Journalistic | Genre: Slice of Life
The smell of new particleboard and industrial glue filled their empty living room. A sprawling diagram, looking more like the schematics for a nuclear reactor than a wardrobe, lay on the floor between Alex and Caleb. Surrounding it were piles of identical-looking screws, wooden dowels, and pale, laminated planks. It was the first piece of furniture for their first apartment together. It was meant to be a symbol of their new beginning. At present, it was a symbol of impending doom.
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
