I’ve been dreaming, and not in a good way. My sleeping mind has played through a rainbow of negative feelings this week, causing me to wake in the nights: anxiety, anger, sadness. I’m not conscious of any particular cause for these apparitions and I have to assume that the deeper part of my psyche is busying itself for a reason, perhaps excavating old rubble no longer needed. Then again, my days have been bright, my walks full of tiny flecks of beauty. The contrast between night and day reminds me there are many things I don’t understand. I’m used to not knowing much about the world, but it’s a shock to recognise there are still parts of myself that are undiscovered.

The balance between known and unknown came up in a discussion at my writers’ group this week. We were discussing the concept of affirmation, a practice of visualising or articulating a future goal in concrete terms – a ‘positive statement of (positive) belief’ as Julia Cameron puts it in The Artist’s Way. They are commonly used amongst creatives. Bernadine Evaristo famously anticipated winning the Booker Prize with Girl, Woman, Other through an affirmation written years before the event, claiming on the podcast, How to Fail, that it was the ‘obvious thing to strive for.’ In our group, we tried out our own affirmations, attempting to push ourselves beyond the modest goals we had originally outlined; if not the Booker Prize than something just a little more expansive than our original vision.

My toes still curl when I hear terms like ‘creative visualisation’ or ‘manifestation’ and I know I’m not alone. Affirmation feels so awkwardly naïve, not to mention self-centred. How can our own thoughts rendered as words on a scrap of paper have any effect on the future? Isn’t there a solipsism in imagining that everyone can achieve their aims, however spectacular, simply by wishing it so. Sure, we all want to win the Booker, walk across the world, spend every day doing what we love: that doesn’t mean we all will.

But Evaristo speaks matter-of-factly about unrealistic goals being ‘the only ones worth setting’ and sees nothing mystical or paranormal about her route from ‘invisible’ writer to one receiving the highest award in the UK literary scene. She explains the concept in a way that helps my toes unfurl. Creating the affirmation is just the first step, leading to a positive mindset and a practical approach that builds towards the goal. You don’t just suddenly become a Booker-Prize-winner. At the very least you have to come up with an idea first, write some words, shape a book, get it finished. As Evaristo puts it, you’re ‘training yourself to be a really positive person who is really self-motivated to achieve what one wants to achieve.’

Affirmations won’t work for everyone. For many of us they will feel like digging into that weird bit of our mind we prefer to pretend doesn’t exist, because it’s a bit out of control and embarrassing. And a positive mindset is not always a writer’s greatest strength. But if we don’t believe in the power of words to inspire ideas, effect change, and bring the impossible into being, then who will?

• Bite the bullet! Create an affirmation! Think of a goal you think you might be able to achieve and then stretch it until it feels a bit dreamy. Write it down as an ‘I will statement’ and put it in an envelope. Think about the first step you’ll need to take, and then the next, to get near to that goal.

• Write a conversation between two people with opposite attitudes to life: one positive, one negative. What is it like for an optimist to encounter a pessimist? Can they learn anything from each other or will they just turn to violence? Build the conflict!

• Think of something that is beyond your understanding. For me, that might be the workings of my dishwasher; for you, it might be the mysteries of the ocean. Write a short piece trying to describe this entity in the most beautiful language you can think of.