Worlds Apart: Narratives in Suspension
Delve into this unique collection of short stories, each an incomplete narrative fragment. These pieces are not meant to offer full conclusions but rather to present moments captured mid-scene, like individual pages extracted from a larger, unfolding work. We invite your imagination to engage with the gaps, constructing the narrative’s full scope.
This project represents an experiment at the crossroads of human creativity and artificial intelligence. It explores how digital tools can serve as a supportive partner in the writing process, facilitating new methods of storytelling and fostering digital literacy. The goal is to observe new possibilities for creative generation.
This particular selection showcases the depth of literary fiction, the expansive ideas of sci-fi, and the intrigue of mystery, alongside contemporary drama and fiction. The specific pieces featured here are by Jamie F. Bell.
Approach these unfinished tales not just as a reader, but as a crucial participant. Your engagement is what completes these narratives, allowing them to fully resonate and evolve within your own mind.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
Unpack intriguing short stories spanning Literary Fiction, Sci-Fi, Mystery, Contemporary Drama, and Contemporary Fiction, with distinct categories including Crime Noir, Epistolary narratives, Cosmic Horror, and Western Style BL. Our project aims to enhance digital literacy, pioneering research into AI-assisted narrative and the future of publishing driven by creative technology.
A Canvas of Ice and Grime
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Crime Noir | Genre: Literary Fiction
The wind, a cutting thing, swept down Portage Avenue, carrying the scent of exhaust and thawing salt. Every lamppost cast a distorted, elongated shadow that danced over the dirty snow. The city hummed, a low, metallic thrum beneath the howl of the January gale, forcing Cassian deeper into the threadbare wool of his coat, his hands shoved into pockets that felt too thin.
An Archive of Red Dust
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Epistolary | Genre: Sci-Fi
“That one cannot be archived,” Samuel said, his voice a dry rasp of disused vocal cords. He pointed a trembling, clay-stained finger at the sculpture in the corner. It was a chaotic assemblage of rust-red Martian rock and salvaged plating from the colony’s first atmospheric processor, twisted into the shape of a human figure shielding its eyes. “Its material composition exceeds nostalgia parameters.”
Subterranean Hum
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Cosmic Horror | Genre: Mystery
The air in the recreation hall basement hung heavy and damp, a stubborn summer heat permeating even the earth-bound depths. Dust motes, thick as pollen in August, danced in the anemic light filtering through the high, grimy windows, revealing decades of accumulated neglect. A faint, earthy scent of mildew and something else—something metallic and sharp, like old blood—clung to the brick walls, a silent testament to forgotten purposes.
The Stain of Ochre
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Crime Noir | Genre: Contemporary Drama
The old warehouse studio, a cavernous space of exposed brick and high, grimy windows, hums with the uneven thrum of various artistic endeavours. Dust motes dance in the weak autumn light filtering through the panes, illuminating a disorganised landscape of canvases, half-formed sculptures, and forgotten instruments. The air, thick with the scent of turpentine, clay, and damp concrete, offers little warmth against the encroaching chill.
Brushstrokes of Discord
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Western Style BL | Genre: Contemporary Fiction
The air in the city gallery’s workshop hums with the low thrum of the building’s ventilation and the fainter, more immediate scent of turpentine and damp clay. Fluorescent lights buzz overhead, casting a slightly clinical glow on a dozen easels and a smattering of half-finished projects. Jace, leaning into a canvas with a reckless sweep of his brush, feels the usual tightness in his chest beginning to ease, even as a new, unfamiliar tension starts to prickle at the edges of his focus.
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.
