We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful KELLY ANN Guglietti. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with KELLY ANN below.

Alright, KELLY ANN thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

While in middle school, I used to write plays and TV shows with my brother. I wrote an episode for “All in the Family” and asked my mom to send it in. She expressed that a career in writing was extremely competitive and demoralizing with all the rejection. She did not think I had the resilience to withstand that. In retrospect, she was probably right.

While in college for my masters degree in elementary education, I took a children’s writing class. We all had to write a story geared toward an elementary school population — either primary or intermediate. I wrote “The Green Tom,” a story about a jealous cat who learned at the end of the story that his jealousy was senseless. My professor recommended that I publish my story. I blew it off for ten years.

Ten years later, I found I had some extra cash, so I tweaked the story and sent it in for self-publishing. I chose self-publishing in the interest of time, as the story was based on a lesson my mother taught us and I was racing with time. She was passing with an aggressive cancer. The book came out in time. My mother loved it and told me that she wanted the money she willed me to go towards “making my stories big.” This gave me the boost to publish three more stories, animated family screenplays on two of them and screenplays in other genres as well.

KELLY ANN, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a retired elementary school teacher. I started writing about six years before I retired. About three years in, I also wrote two animated family dramedies, “The Orange Chihuahua” and “The Yellow Sea Lioness,” based on two of my books of the same titles.

I missed the eight-ball on marketing my books fully, as I did not have the time and money to do so when I started out. Lesson learned. But now that I am retired, I have more time to devote to my screenplays. Through consultation with animation director and writer, Mike Disa (HOODWINKED, TOO!, POSTMAN PAT, WACKY RACES MOVIE, etc.), it was recommended that I deepen the character arc of the protagonist in “The Orange Chihuahua.” Writer, Katiedid Langrock (HELLO KITTY: SUPER STYLE!, PROJECT MC2, BARBIE DREAMHOUSE ADVENTURES, etc.) recommended that I turn “The Yellow Sea Lioness” into a series before re-entering it into screenplay contests. I followed suit. In the meantime, I have also written what I hope to be a Thanksgiving special for TV, “The Brown Turkeys.” It is an animated MS NBC news broadcast on Thanksgiving in the eyes of the turkey. Since I re-started entry into contests last December, this screenplay has won the Fall 2023 Best Short Screenplay at the Grande Stories Screenplay Competition on January 10, 2024 and the Bronze Award for the WRPN.tv Screenplay Competition on March 10, 2024. Notification dates on the others are forthcoming.

I am currently working with Script Consultant, Jamie Nash (TINY CHRISTMAS, SANTA HUNTERS, ADVENTURES OF A TEENAGE DRAGON SLAYER, etc.) on a romantic comedy, “Think Pink.” The logline for this is: Upon ultimatum from their wives, three nearly divorced men enroll in The Think Pink Intensive Program for Men — a fraudulently-run therapeutic program — to understand how their wives think. Despite the unscrupulous methods of the financially greedy owners, the men learn enough to rekindle their spousal flames.

I believe great film provokes thought, creates emotional engagement and educates its audience. I hope to have a few great films to my credit in the not so distant future.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

After I wrote my first two screenplays, I looked for agents through the Writers Guild of America. I queried nearly all of them in one sitting, getting a call from one who said he was interested in both. I sent them in Word. He informed me that they would have to be submitted in traditional screenwriting software and recommended Final Draft. So I rushed to get the software and retyped both screenplays as fast as I could. I proofread them in one fell swoop, eyes blurring and seeing double letters when there was single and vice-versa. There were beaucoup mistakes and this agent never said a word. I gave him two years to do find prospective options for me to no avail. What to do?

I Googled other ways to get agents and found FilmFreeway, “the world’s #1 way to discover, submit and get tickets to thousands of film festivals, screenplay contests, music contests and photography contests all over the world.” I entered “The Orange Chihuahua” and “The Yellow Sea Lioness” as is, with all the errors, to all the top screenplay competitions. A rep from one screenplay competition had the heart to call and tell me that there were many errors in “The Yellow Sea Lioness.” How embarrassing! What to do?

I took my time to edit both screenplays before entering them again. As money was an issue at the time, I let my entries to competitions fizzle.

Through an entry into one screenplay competition, I was introduced to InkTip Magazine, a way to pitch your screenplays and to hopefully attract the attention of an interested producer or director. I subscribed to their service for three years to no avail. When I had to explain why I wanted to unsubscribe to their service, they told me that there was not a huge demand for the animation market on their platform. What to do?

An ad for Stage 32 serendipitously showed up while I was in Facebook. Stage 32 has been a Godsend! It offers educational classes on everything you need to know to get into the business. Through a class on making a pitch deck, I met the instructor, Film Producer Sara Elizabeth Timmons (LAKE EFFECTS, WISH YOU WELL, McMILLIONS, etc.). After crafting a gorgeous pitch deck for “The Yellow Sea Lioness,” she remembered me and found Katiedid Langrock to consult with me at one of her Power Hours. What a connection! She not only saw how my feature could be better served as a series, but told me how to do it. I mentioned I had a short I was playing with, “The Brown Turkey.” Katiedid read it and expressed that she thought it was hilarious and ready to go to the screenwriting festivals. This was last November. I have since received the two awards I mentioned previously for it. Stage 32 also offers regularly occurring opportunities to pitch in your genre. Feedback from these pitch sessions is of high value.

Through entry of “The Brown Turkey” into the Shore Scripts Short Film Fund Contest, I was informed of the opportunity to take a course on the “Save the Cat” method of structuring a screenplay. I bought the book of the same name because it was so highly recommended from my latest consultants. I thought, “Oh yeah, another of the many books on how to write a screenplay,” but I ordered it anyway. Another Godsend, a million-fold! This structure is the industry standard — I’ve finally found it! I no longer have to wing it and hope it sticks. Screenwriter, Producer Jamie Nash offers varying degrees of consultation packages. I hired him to help me through the whole writing of my latest screenplay, “Think Pink.” After my first session, I feel I am so much closer to the possibility of being seen on the big screen. Jamie was impressed with how much I already thought out and he liked the direction I was going in.

There were lulls in the middle of making these connections, but they gave me time to keep researching what needed to be done to make these connections. I was really pessimistic by late Fall last year, but I used the advice of my connections and am starting to make a little traction. When your bootstraps fall, you gotta pick ’em right back up and keep going!

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Stage 32 — primarily an education and pitching network for all creatives.

No Film School. No Trust Fund. No Problem program by Sara Elizabeth Timmins — Sara Elizabeth holds webinars and seminars on how to pitch and sell a film as well as providing consultations during her summits.

“Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting That You’ll Ever Need” by the late Blake Snyder.

Jamie Nash, Screenwriter/Producer – teaches the “Save the Cat!” structure of screenwriting that is the industry standard.

If I knew then what I know now, I would be much farther along than I am. But at least I know I can get there.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kellyanngugliettiscreenplays.my.canva.site/about
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KellyAnnGugliettiAuthor/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/
• Youtube: https://www.wfla.com/video/kelly-ann-guglietti-8-1-23/8865221/
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBIQAjFA7bs&t=10s