If the problem is a whole novel that won’t work but won’t go away, the modern writer can take on a Project from Porlock. … It’s almost guaranteed to come to nothing, so you won’t need another project from Porlock to save you from having to deliver the first draft; besides, while the film industry lawyers are poring over the small print of the contracts, you may well have solved your initial problem, or just grown old and died.

Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self-…, loc. 42