org-element-property syntax (turning strings into keyword symbols)

[Matt Price <moptop99@gmail.com>]

Hi,

I'm trying to write a query that will check to see if the current
element has any of several properties set; the properties are defined
in a defcustom so I don't know in advance which properties I'm
interested in.  So I have the following code which INSERTS properties:

(defcustom org-writers-room-properties '(("Synopsis" . "Put a short
summary here") ("Role in Book" . "Describe what you want this section
to accomplish") ("Characters" . "who is in this section"))
  "alist of properties to be inserted automatically on heading creation"
  :group 'org-writers-room
  :type 'alist)

(defun org-wr-main-heading-hook ()
  "Adds a properties drawer & populates it with several properties.
Intended to be used with org-insert-heading-hook, but is also
interactive."
  (interactive)
  (save-excursion
    (dolist (this-property org-writers-room-properties)
      (org-set-property (car this-property) (cdr this-property))
    )
    (org-flag-drawer 'nil)
    (select-window (window-with-name "guide"))
    (org-cycle-hide-drawers 'all)
    )
  )

This works fine.  Now when I come back to this buffer I want to check
whether any of the properties are actually there.  So I am trying
something like this:

(let ((hasprops nil))
  (dolist prop org-writers-room-properties
      (if (org-element-property (car prop) (org-element-at-point))
           (setq hasprops t))
      (if (hasprops)
          (etc.))

However this doesn't work because (1) the car of "prop" (which is in
fact the property name) is not necessarily capitalized and (2) the
"property" parameter of org-element-property is not a string, but a
"keyword symbol".  Somehow I have to turn my string into the
appropriate keyword symbol.  Does anyone know how to do this?

Thank you!

Matt