"Navigating the Novella"

I would often sit down at my desk and have no idea what I was going to write. But characters came to me and most importantly the narrator's voice.
Nearly everyone in the book is a composite of people I've met or particular types I've come across or characters I've seen in films.
As the book is highly visual, I would often try to picture how Hitchcock would film a specific scene. I would "see" characters acting and reacting, watch them speaking or remaining silent, gesturing or sitting perfectly still.
Pinter has always influenced my style when writing dialogue: what is said, what is left unspoken, pausing, remaining silent, while creating a subtext of dramatic tension, often with an air of menace.
About half the book takes place in Nice on the French Riviera, a "safe" setting but also a warm and sensual one where the narrator, alone in a foreign land, is free to play out his fantasies.
The premise of the book remained the same, even as I added characters and wrote a more redemptive and less depressing ending than I'd originally imagined.