Umm....they're both foxes! I realize this isn't really anthropomorphic but thought it seemed too fake to make arbitrary changes to the piece - like changing nose to muzzle and hand to paw. Whatever, here's my process notes:

For the original exercise I thought carefully about the things that I avoided/feared as a writer. To help me clarify the elements of craft I might be avoiding, I looked though my copy of Writing Fiction, eds. Burroway, Suckey-French. The two areas I pinpointed fell under the category of characterization. They were direct dialogue and appearance – especially of characters - I have a habit of fudging these, and wanted to pin them down more precisely. I felt like choosing a small moment – a drive home seemed perfect, and an issue which scares me – the projected consequences of waiting too long to make a decision about one's stakes in a possible relationship. I started writing and then whittled it down to three solid lines. Though I felt they were enough for the poem, I needed to try to work in all these elements so I expanded the piece. This was one of my first attempts at prose poetry and as you can see it's really just a short short story. I fixed that in revision.

For the revision, first I had to cut down the piece, which I did by circling a few images to focus on. These images were: the wheel, the dashboard, her chest, his chest, the side window, the apartment key, his lapels and her hand. I cut each of these images out from the piece, along with a few of the words proceeding them and started a new stanza with each, about three sentences per stanza. I had a list of thirteen verbose words from the dictionary and used as many as possible in the piece - sometimes they brought a new images to mind, sometimes they replaced words I had already written. I was going to return the poem to prose block form when I noticed that the sentences varied greatly in length, generally getting longer as the piece went on. I decided to rearrange the piece by word, though I think syllabic count might have been more of a challenge. I like how the sentences connect to form a story though they simultaneously seem to stand alone.

P.S. I'll try and work on some anthro fiction in the upcoming weeks. It'll be easier now that I have some extra free time.