About Me — Shain Slepian. Waiting for a punchline
By: Shain Slepian
Tags: Essay Writing, Biography, About Me, Freelancing, Screenwriting

About Me — Shain Slepian

Waiting for a punchline

Nope, still can’t find it.

If I could synthesize my essence into a single phrase, I think it would be “well, this is awkward.”

Irony and authenticity are always tugging my brain in different directions. I’m an excitable, loud-mouthed nerd, who is compelled to temper everything they say with cynicism and just a teaspoon of morbidity.

Just think of me as the dullest Miyazaki film you’ve ever seen.

I’m 26, never lived anywhere but New York City, and have an innate revulsion toward doing things. I’m not very interesting, in other words. I could list the most impressive facts about myself in an attempt to obfuscate that fact, and I may do just that, but at my core I am a very boring person.

And I’m okay with that.

For me, fitting in is a form of standing out. As much as I love watching from the sidelines, my big mouth often forces me to interject myself in conversations where I don’t belong. My ability to stay quiet, to listen closely, is a skill I work to sharpen everyday. I believe, or hope, that this improves my writing.

I think the world and everything in it is incredible, miraculous, and distinctly improbable. The fact that I am alive and conscious is ridiculously lucky. Every person I meet is fascinating and endlessly profound, and listening to the world around me is far more enjoyable than inserting my own weirdness into every conversation. But the burden of having an ego often gets in the way of actually using my brief moment of consciousness to its greatest possible effect.

So, in my writing, I try to tune in to all the things I almost missed when I was running my big mouth. Because it doesn’t matter what the cynic on my left shoulder wants to wants to shoot down or what esoteric fact the nerd on my right has to contribute.

What matters is you.

Now, about me:

I love animation, and if I had the time and money to pick up such a skill, I would take it up in a heartbeat. My animation tastes, as in the rest of my life, are exuberant and playful but always leaking darkness from some undetectable corner. I love to laugh, but I am oddly averse to comedies.

I am non-binary, which means that I am neither a man or a woman. This is not the same thing as being intersex: while sex refers to one’s biological sex characteristics, one’s gender refers to the social expectations that often accompany sex traits. Because gender is such an ephemeral topic, figuring out how one relates to the classical gender binary (male and female) is tricky and confusing. I have therefore written a fair bit about this topic on Medium and on my YouTube channel.

I am the co-editor of the publication Introspection Exposition, alongside the real brains and heart of the operation, Elan Cassandra. Elan is a close friend of mine whom I met in a writer’s group: when she learned that I was also a screenwriter, she reached out to chat with me personally. At first, I was shocked by this, because I was certain she was one of the members of the group that was too cool to even remember my name, let alone remember my preferred writing medium. Little did I know that she was one of the most approachable and gracious people I would ever met. Her friendship is invaluable to me, and her writing inspires me.

I began my Medium account in part so that I would have the ability to share my thoughts and feelings that other people might think they were alone in having. One of my first pieces on Medium was about my childhood upbringing in the special education system. My behavioral and cognitive disabilities are often a source of shame and embarrassment for me. But by writing about it in a public forum, I found that I wasn’t nearly as alone in my struggles as I had anticipated. Who knew?

I have never finished reading the first Lord of the Rings book, and at this point, I would feel pretentious if I actually sat down to read the thing. I likewise have no love for the Star Wars franchise, and I haven’t even finished Naruto Shippuden, and this makes me worry for the security of my nerd cred.

I am writing a novel. Apparently. A few months ago, I began airing weekly podcasts on my channel: some were one-shots and others were serialized. However, I quickly realized that one of my stories was going to require far more time than my average YouTube videos allow for. Also, I’m no Cecil Baldwin, as you can probably tell. And so, I stopped airing these regular stories and began novelizing the story I had become mildly obsessed with, and this is what I’ve got so far. As a screenwriter and essayist, I have no idea if I am remotely qualified for this task, but hey, I didn’t know how to do either of those things before I started doing them, right?

My day job is split between grant writing and script consultation. I write script reports for screenwriters who are looking to tighten up their work. I love thinking about how films and television operate and have a blog where I have written extensively about the screenwriting process. As a grant writer, I have had the privilege to advocate for systemic justice and equity from behind the safety of my laptop. …And… uh… you can hire me… you know… if you want…

I am a leftist, and I enjoy running around telling people that I am not a liberal, damnit! I am a socialist: but don’t worry, you won’t every find me promoting the USSR. I generally hate centralized authority and imposed hierarchy. A cause that I hold dear to my heart is the anarchic confederation of Rojava, in Northern Syria, and I even occupy an administrative role in the Emergency Committee for Rojava.

My favorite word is tintinnabulation. Just say it to yourself: tintinnabulation. Beautiful, isn’t it? It sounds absolutely gorgeous in Phil Ochs version of The Bells. See? I can link to things that are not self-promotion!

I love meeting people virtually and learning new things, so feel free to reach out through Twitter.

Solidarity and Love,

Shain