Lise Pyles: Screenwriter in San Antonio, Texas.

I too come from a small cornfield community and completely relate to your story. I attended UW Oshkosh and my life was changed when Ray Bradbury selected me to participate in a Winter Interim class held in Hollywood where he hosted us and set up meetings for us around town. Thanks for sharing your story.

Terrific blog post, Ashley. I love hearing how people got started, because no two paths are the same. So often it's just a small chance happening, that builds on itself. I have learned, but STILL have to remind myself, that the hardest part of networking is just starting the conversation. The rewards are usually great and then I wonder why I ever hesitated.

As a very stereotypical introvert, it took me a LONG time to warm up to in-person networking. But a friend of mine pointed out that setting small goals (I'll talk to 3 people and then I can leave; I'll stay for 1 hour; I'll introduce myself, etc) and putting on a "Business Hat"/persona can help. At events, I'm not just Dawn - I'm Dawn The Writer, and she's great at talking to people because that's part of her job. It sounds a little silly, but BOY does it work! And then by the time you've hit your goals, the event doesn't seem quite as intimidating :)

It's been a few months, so I'll introduce myself. I've been on Stage32 for a few years and always get a lot out of it.

My interest as a screenwriter is in writing drama, historical, biopic, adaptations, family, or rom-com. It sounds like a wide net, but it mostly boils down to an exploration of the friction between two people. That could be about competition, jealousy, mentorship, legacy or other -- even love, sometimes.

Here's networking serendipity. At AFF several years ago, I ran into a writer friend. He shared that he had met a producer two years prior at AFF who had requested his script, but my friend never heard back. He also saw him again at AFF a year later, and the producer apologized and asked for a resend, but again, my friend didn't hear back. My friend joked about whether it would happen again.

An hour later, I was at a round table and the producer there was talking about the power of networking, and how he had met this one writer at AFF twice and it took two years to read the script but now he is looking for him to possibly hire him for a story that needs a scriptwriter. Wow.

After the round table, I hurried off to find my friend and yes, that was the producer. It was fun to be able to tell him, "Go! Go now! He's over there and he's interested in hiring you!"

He did hire him -- for that script, and three more (two features, two TV episodes).