Werner Herzog warns aspiring filmmakers to not quit their jobs and go to film school. In place of academic thinking, he’s is interested in real-life experiences — filmmakers who have done their time in the world, spent a few nights on the street, worked as a bouncer at a night club. I’m sure the same applies for writers. One of my strangest and most eye-opening jobs was as a summer temp working in a frozen pizza factory after my freshman year in college. Pepperoni, pepperoni, pepperoni, one after the other for 8 hours straight, an endless conveyor belt of frozen discs. Mind numbing, but also strangely meditative, though I recognize my great privilege of being able to go back to school in the fall.