Futures Interrupted: Unfinished Narratives of Power and Purpose
Discover a collection of unfinished tales, presented as glimpses into ongoing stories, much like opening a book to a pivotal chapter without prior context. Each piece is a segment, a moment suspended, challenging the reader to envision the broader narrative arc. This format encourages a creative dialogue, where the unspoken parts of the story become fertile ground for personal interpretation.
This project functions as an experimental program that bridges human creativity, interdisciplinary arts, and applied artificial intelligence research. It seeks to understand how digital tools can act as a partner in the writing process, shaping new forms of storytelling and scriptwriting, and enhancing digital literacy skills and creative workflows.
This selection features genres including the lighthearted intrigue of Cozy Mystery, the sharp wit of Dark Comedy, the tension of Political Thriller, the cautionary visions of Dystopian narratives, and the relevant themes of Environmental Fiction. Leaf Richards, Eva Suluk, Jamie F. Bell, and Tony Eetak are the authors whose contributions shape this diverse and thought-provoking collection.
We invite you to step into these intriguing short stories, completing their journeys within your own imagination. Become an active participant in the ongoing creation of these worlds, bringing your own perspective to their untold elements.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
The Empty Shop
Author: Leaf Richards | Category: Hardboiled Noir | Genre: Cozy Mystery
A biting winter wind whipped through the village of Oakhaven, carrying fine, crystalline snow that settled on every surface like a fresh coat of quiet. The afternoon light, a weak, bruised violet, was already fading. Three small figures, bundled in more layers than seemed possible, stood before the dark, silent front of Mrs. Johnston’s Secondhand Books. The air smelled of woodsmoke and crisp, wet cold, with the faint, sharper tang of salt from the gritted pathways.
The Heart of the Woods
Author: Eva Suluk | Category: Allegorical | Genre: Dark Comedy
The smell of damp earth and dying leaves hung heavy, a bittersweet perfume of autumn. A chill wind sliced through the thinning canopy, rustling dry branches like old paper. This part of the woods, far from any marked trail, always felt a little off-kilter, the trees growing in stranger angles, the light filtering down in an uneven, almost bruised pattern. It was here, amidst the encroaching chill and the silent, patient decay, that something truly peculiar began to reveal itself.
Resentment
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Boys Love (BL) | Genre: Political Thriller
The old truck sputtered its last breath and died, leaving Caleb in a sudden, profound quiet under a sky bleeding plum and apricot. The air tasted of distant woodsmoke and wet, decaying leaves, sharp and melancholic. Out here, where the paved road gave way to churned earth, every sound became magnified: the rustle of dry weeds against the tires, the faint, persistent thrum of a generator from somewhere on Owen’s property, and the unnerving, too-close caw of a crow. He felt less like a returning friend and more like an accidental witness to a quiet, ongoing excavation.
The Chill in the Recital Hall
Author: Eva Suluk | Category: Horror | Genre: Dystopian
The remnants of a dream clung to me like frost, a jagged, troubling landscape that felt less like an invention of sleep and more like a premonition. The air in the room was a tangible thing, sharp and thin, pulling me back to the familiar ache of reality. It was another winter morning in a world that had forgotten the meaning of warmth.
A Bitter Spring Night
Author: Tony Eetak | Category: Political Thriller | Genre: Environmental Fiction
Two teenagers, covered in mud, are on a clandestine mission to expose an environmental crime at a sprawling industrial facility. They navigate treacherous terrain, infiltrate the heavily guarded complex, and narrowly escape after securing crucial evidence.
Storytelling and the Arts, Skills Development and Digital Transformation
AI-Assisted Storytelling and Scriptwriting: My team is exploring how AI can enhance creative development, drawing insights from genres like Dark Comedy, Environmental Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Dystopian, and Political Thriller. We study AI’s capacity to navigate the intricate world-building of Dystopian narratives, craft the nuanced dialogue essential for Dark Comedy, or build suspense in a Political Thriller. This research investigates how AI tools can assist in generating innovative story arcs, developing complex characters, and refining genre-specific narrative elements, ultimately streamlining the scriptwriting process.
Talent Development and Training: Our research also focuses on the evolving skill sets required for creative professionals in an AI-driven landscape. The process of generating these case studies, spanning diverse genres from Cozy Mystery to Environmental Fiction, serves as a practical model for future digital publishing and film production workflows. We emphasize the development of digital literacy and the critical ability to effectively manage and integrate AI tools, preparing creators for collaborative environments where human creativity is augmented by artificial intelligence.
We’re excited to learn about these new technologies and how they can be applied to expand the boundaries of human storytelling. We encourage you to keep reading, keep imagining, and keep exploring the incredible potential that opens up when creativity meets technology.
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 interdisciplinary arts and narrative storytelling experiment. It is part of a creative arts and research program by The Arts Incubator Winnipeg and the Art Borups Corners collectives. This project focuses on two key areas: AI-Assisted Storytelling and Scriptwriting, exploring AI for generating ideas, plot structures, and alternative story arcs; and Talent Development and Training, studying the skills and training needs for creative professionals managing AI and immersive technologies to inform future training curricula. Funding and support were generously provided by the Ontario Arts Council Multi and Inter-Arts Projects program and the Government of Ontario. We thank them for supporting the arts, digital transformation, and applied Artificial Intelligence (AI) research for northern innovation in Ontario.
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