The Allure of the Unfinished: Journeys Mid-Sentence
These stories are offered as incomplete narrative fragments, moments captured mid-scene. They are snapshots, pages torn from a larger book, inviting the reader’s imagination to consider what came before and what happens next within their unique settings.
This collection is an experiment at the intersection of human creativity and artificial intelligence. It explores how digital tools can act as a partner in the writing process, shaping new forms of storytelling and enhancing digital literacy.
This selection spans genres from Contemporary Drama to Mystery, Contemporary Fiction, and Satire. Jamie F. Bell and Eva Suluk are among the authors presenting these diverse narratives.
We invite you to explore these unfinished tales, not just as a reader, but as a co-creator who completes the narrative in their own mind.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
Delve into thought-provoking short stories across Contemporary Drama, Mystery, Contemporary Fiction, and Satire, presented with a range from Minimalist and Gritty Realism to Cyberpunk and Grimdark Fantasy, even touching on Western Style BL. We champion digital literacy in publishing, showcasing creative technology’s pivotal role in exploring AI-assisted narrative and the future of digital publishing.
The Thaw and the Framework
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Minimalist | Genre: Contemporary Drama
The smell of damp wool and stale coffee clung to the air inside the old community hall, a scent perpetually clinging to such spaces in the long, drawn-out northern spring. Outside, dirty ice receded in grimy puddles, revealing patches of sickly yellow grass. Inside, a projector hummed, casting a pale, uninspiring diagram onto a makeshift screen. Elias Grey, his face etched with a decade of grant applications and failed promises, tapped a pen against the scarred surface of a folding table, the sound too loud in the quiet room. He adjusted his glasses, a weary sigh caught in his throat before it could fully escape.
Verdigris & Vexation
Author: Eva Suluk | Category: Gritty Realism | Genre: Mystery
The air, heavy with the scent of wet asphalt and blooming but unseen privet, hung thick over the alley. Puddles mirrored the smeared, anxious lights of the city, and the chill of an early spring evening clung to everything. This was the kind of place where secrets condensed, weighty and unwelcome, from the exhaust fumes and general detritus of urban life. Two figures, hunched against the persistent drizzle, scrutinised a recent, violent addition to the grime.
A Glimmer in the Frost
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Cyberpunk | Genre: Contemporary Fiction
The air hung heavy and still, smelling of wet concrete and distant woodsmoke. Snow, fine as icing sugar, dusted the window ledges, blurring the sharp edges of the cityscape. Inside, a single, unlit string of fairy lights lay tangled on the floor, a forgotten promise in a room that felt too vast, too quiet for the season. Marcus traced a finger along the condensation on the pane, the chill seeping into his bone, a feeling he’d become intimately familiar with since the autumn winds began to bite.
Ghost Lights
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Grimdark Fantasy | Genre: Contemporary Drama
The kitchen was always the coldest room, even with the oven on, a lingering chill that sank into the marrow. Outside, the early December sky was a bruised plum colour, already fading into a thick, starless night. Inside, the only sounds were the low thrum of the ancient refrigerator and the soft, almost apologetic drip from the tap. A half-eaten plate of toast sat abandoned on the counter, crumbs scattered like tiny, meaningless promises.
The Crimson Exhale
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Western Style BL | Genre: Satire
The air, sharp with the bite of a prairie winter, usually carried the scent of woodsmoke and ice. Tonight, it tasted metallic, like copper and distant ozone. A peculiar amber glow, not quite natural for a January evening, pulsed against the grey-blue canvas of the sky. It felt wrong, like watching a movie frame-by-frame, each breath of the wind a stutter in the world’s rhythm.
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 an experimental, creative research project by The Arts Incubator Winnipeg and the Art Borups Corners Storytelling clubs. Each chapter is a unique interdisciplinary arts and narrative storytelling experiment, born from a collaboration between artists and applied AI researchers, designed to explore the boundaries of creative writing, automation, and storytelling. 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.
