I’m Katie, a sophomore at UMW double majoring in Creative Writing and Communication/Digital Studies ? So excited to see how this Digital Storytelling course goes and what comes out of it! #ds106 #theend106 @theEnd106

— Katie Hartraft (@KatieHartraft) January 19, 2018

This week has been really fun preparing for The End! I’m sure were I to ever actually have to prepare for such a thing (which I doubt I would get a heads-up on but I digress) I wouldn’t think it so fun. BUT – my arsenal has been prepared for the rest of the semester. I have created and corroborated my social media baseline. I already had a Twitter handle and a Slack account I was willing to use, but I did have to make a SoundCloud, YouTube, and a Instagram to be separate from ones I already have. But the best part was making this blog! Of course, even if apocalypses don’t always mean zombie apocalypse, I couldn’t resist the joke of “A Zombie Attack in Vegas Stays in Vegas”.

I have been infatuated with apocalyptic narratives for longer than I can remember. It started slowly (again, couldn’t tell you where), but now I am obsessed. I like all genres of the apocalypse, though I must say I have an affinity for zombies. With them, it’s like the plague–but better! The reanimating of people brings up ethical and moral questions that are very thought provoking. I watch shows like The Walking Dead(TWD), iZombie, and by pure coincidence I am currently reading World War Z. Each of these offer radically different takes on the zombie apocalypse. TWD follows a group of people and has you witness how they are built up and broken down by the apocalypse. iZombie takes a comedic-drama approach, making the outbreak seem more personal as you can relate to the people trying to keep living normal lives in the modern world. World War Z acts as a historic text, telling many stories from all over the world to demonstrate the incredible scope of the worldwide epidemic.

I also enjoy post-apocalyptic stories (such as the gorgeous short “Ruin” by Wes Ball, seen below, give it a watch!) that bring you into their world but don’t give you too much information. This way you get to put more imagination and thought into expanding that world.

My love for writing fiction and working with digital technology make CPSC 106 my DREAM class! I know stories don’t write themselves, but I do know they can take on a mind of their own (much like a zombie) so I am excited to see where this goes!

I’m the one on the right, unless you turn your phone around and hold it up to a mirror then I’m on your left ? This was taken at a writer’s convention in Richmond, as English: Creative Writing is one of my two majors at UMW #ds106 #theend106

A post shared by Katie Hartraft (@katiehartraft) on Jan 16, 2018 at 6:05pm PST