For those who were never read fairytales at bedtime, Rumpelstiltskin is about this stupid young peasant girl who claimed that she could spin straw into gold. The king, hearing about this miraculous ability, promptly marries her, then sticks her in a room full of straw and a spinning wheel. While she's weeping and wailing over the spinning wheel, a dwarf appears out of nowhere, says he can turn all the straw into gold and save her life but in return, she had to promise him her firstborn. Stupid girl agrees, the eponymous dwarf fills room with gold, king is overjoyed etc. etc.
So why am I like that stupid woman? I have been commissioned to wax lyrical about a condo development in Penang that I've never seen for a client I've never met. And now I'm weeping and wailing over my iBook. I've been uninspired for a week now and there is no end to this drought in sight.
This is a lesson to all serious writers: Don't write about what you don't know.
Just because I've worked almost exclusively on property projects over the last five years, doesn't mean that I can turn it on and off like a tap. To give genuine value to the client, I have to approach every job like it's the first one I've ever done. I must believe in my client's vision, I must empathise with his hopes and fears, I must want to help him succeed.
I've already accepted the challenge to turn straw into gold and I'm feeling really stupid and frustrated. So this blinding self-awareness is brilliant 20/20 hindsight. Simply brilliant.
At least, there's no sinister dwarf in the offing.
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