From Lynda Barry, cartoonist & teacher: 

I’d like you to start thinking about drawing as something other than a way to make a pleasing visual image.  Try thinking of drawing as another means of thinking and communication. Think of drawing as a means of communication with other people, but also as a means by which we enable parts of ourselves to communicate with each other resulting in what we sometimes call ‘insight’ — a sudden understanding that seems to ‘come to us’  and arrive whole (emphasis mine). 

You can easily swap out “drawing” for “writing,” or really any creative act. The idea is that creative exploration can build neural bridges to undiscovered territory within yourself.

Check out the order: Drawing results in insight, Barry says. So many people assume the idea comes first. And for some writers and cartoonists and other artists, I’m sure it does. But it doesn’t have to. You don’t have to know where you’re going to strike out into the wilds of your mind.