Writing, for me, is really an auditory experience.
The best way for me to proof-read stuff I’ve written is to read it aloud. That process serves two purposes.
The first is practical. Proof-reading my own stuff is very nearly impossible. I believe this is probably true for most people. When I proof-read silently, my mind is happy to supply missing words or correct typos. In other words, I miss mistakes. Reading the material out loud forces me to notice those mistakes more fully than I otherwise would. This is the reason I recommend proof-reading aloud to all my students. It’s not fool-proof, but it’s more thorough.
The second reason, though, is that I want to hear how the words sound. I want to hear the flow of the words, sentences, and paragraphs. How does it sound? Because the process of reading, for me, is auditory. I hear the words in my head, even if I’m reading silently. It is important, then, in my own writing process, that I make sure the words sound how I want them.
This may go a long way towards explaining why I prefer writing dialogue to other parts of the narrative. Dialogue most obviously is auditory in nature. It’s the easiest for me to hear in my head. And it is the easiest for me to produce. Descriptions, movement, action… All are difficult for me to produce. I don’t know how those should sound.
I love reading to other people. Taking the prose on the page and bringing it to life is a simple pleasure. A form of story-telling, perhaps, though more story sharing. When I wrote poetry, I wrote intending it to be spoken, not simply stared at on a page. And I think I approach my prose in a similar way.
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