Echoes of Unwritten Futures
Within this collection, you will find a series of distinct, unfinished tales. These are not complete novels, but rather narrative moments—scenes preserved mid-action, or characters introduced without full backstories. The intent is to spark curiosity, prompting readers to consider the broader contexts these fragments imply.
This project is conceived as an experiment at the intersection of human creativity and artificial intelligence. It explores how digital tools can serve as a collaborative partner in the writing process, fostering new methods of storytelling and advancing digital literacy skills.
This post highlights genres including the immersive details of Slice-of-Life, the tension of a Cyberpunk Thriller, and expansive Sci-Fi. These specific pieces are brought to life by Jamie F. Bell.
Step into these narratives and let your own creativity bridge the gaps, transforming incomplete stories into full experiences through your active engagement.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
Dive into captivating short stories featuring Slice-of-Life, Contemporary Drama, Sci-Fi, Cyberpunk, and Cyberpunk Thriller narratives, often imbued with Expository, Coming-of-Age, Cozy Mystery, or Romance elements. We advance digital literacy by exploring how creative technology and AI-assisted narrative are shaping the future of publishing.
The Motion to Replace the Memorial Geraniums
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Expository | Genre: Slice-of-Life
The community hall smelled of damp plaster, stale coffee, and the faint, sweet perfume Bethany always wore. Fluorescent lights hummed overhead, casting a sickly yellow pallor on the peeling paint and the mismatched, uncomfortable chairs arranged in a circle. A plate of digestive biscuits sat untouched on the folding table, a testament to the tension that had been simmering since the meeting began an hour ago.
A Stillness Beneath the Tinsel
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Coming-of-Age | Genre: Contemporary Drama
A faint, electric hum from the fairy lights strung haphazardly across the living room window was the loudest thing in the house. Outside, the night pressed in, a heavy blanket of fresh snow muffling the usual city rumble, leaving only the distant, mournful cry of a single car horn. Inside, the air was thick with the ghost of pine needles and burnt sugar, a cloying sweetness that clung to the back of Leo’s throat.
The Thermochromic Lament
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Coming-of-Age | Genre: Sci-Fi
The air in Priya’s office was a tangible thing, thick with recycled oxygen, the scent of ozone from the server farm two floors below, and the oppressive humidity of a Toronto July that had long ago forgotten what a temperate summer felt like. Outside her triple-paned window, the city shimmered under a perpetual ochre haze, the CN Tower a barely-visible spike piercing a soupy sky. The only sound was the hum of the building’s life support and the tinny, delayed voice of Mr. Hesh arguing with her from a boardroom in orbital low-grav.
Rustbloom and Hardwired Hues
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Cozy Mystery | Genre: Cyberpunk
The persistent, fine drizzle of Neo-Montreal clung to everything, an oily sheen on the ferrocrete, a greasy film on the flickering holo-ads that promised eternal youth or instant credit. Rust-coloured leaves, long past their vibrant autumn prime, plastered themselves to chrome-plated street corners, bleeding chemical dyes into the perpetually damp ground. The air, thick with the smell of wet exhaust, synth-spice, and something vaguely metallic, carried a low, throbbing hum – the city’s ceaseless metabolism. Inside Sammie Taylor’s cramped, overheated apartment, the only light came from the glow of outdated screens and the rhythmic blink of a dozen charging indicator lights, painting his face in shifting greens and blues.
A Glitch in the Downpour
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Romance | Genre: Cyberpunk Thriller
The city’s sky ripped open, not with gentle rain, but a sudden, violent cascade that turned streets into rivers and concrete into slick, dangerous mirrors. Juno, struggling to shield her fragile, instrument-like prototype from the deluge, sprinted for the nearest shelter: a minimalist, glass-and-steel pavilion in the heart of the bustling park. She wasn’t alone. Dex, seemingly casual yet radiating an unsettling intensity, had already taken refuge, his gaze sweeping the chaos outside with a predatory calm. The sleek, modern architecture now served as an impromptu, precarious stage for a secret collision.
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.
