Writer's Routines

David Lynch:

For seven years in the 1980s he ate lunch at Bob’s Big Boy every day, which consisted of cup after cup of coffee and a single chocolate milkshake while scribbling notes on Bob’s napkins. He arrived at Bob’s at precisely 2:30 p.m. each day. The reason: “If you go earlier, at lunchtime, they’re making a lot of chocolate milkshakes. The mixture has to cool in a machine, but if it doesn’t sit in there long enough, it’s runny,” he said. “At 2:30, you’ve got a chance for it to be just great."

Only three perfect milkshakes out of more than 2,500.
 “The coffee and the sugar would really get me going. And I would try to catch ideas.” (He doesn’t eat sugar anymore). Mapped out, at least in part, on Bob’s napkins—was Blue Velvet.