This morning I woke at seven, (snoozed until 7.09 as usual) then took up the special book and pen I keep by my bed and covered three sheets of A4 with stream of consciousness. These are my "morning pages" and I've been doing this for the past four weeks.

The morning pages are the brainchild of creativity teacher Julia Cameron. Every day before I get up, I must write down the first thoughts that enter my head. She promises that this will unlock my creative voice. I'm a theatre writer/director and, struggling with my current project, I thought I'd give it a try.

At first, the pages were a place to set out my plans and vent my frustrations and I felt good knowing I had done it every day. I didn't see much change in my work, but it was still satisfying: like being my own therapist.

In my third week, however, I was unwilling. "I don't want to write anything," I wrote. I forced myself to carry on. I wrote "why?" The words that followed revealed my biggest block: a fear of failure. It was all over the pages, all over my relationships, in my career and it was a thread through my work.

In the next week or so I started to see changes. I wrote a treatment for a short film, bought some artists' materials and a sketchbook and arranged exploratory workshops. I even played my cello, something I hadn't done for two years. I had a great time sawing away, comforted by the knowledge that I was, at least, no worse than I was the last time I'd picked it up. There are other, bigger changes that I won't say here. Let's just say that the pages are working for me.

I think it was Samuel Beckett who said "Fail again. Fail better." I might get it tattooed somewhere.

· The Artist's Way: A course in discovering and recovering your creative self by Julia Cameron, is published by Pan Books at £7.79