I'll answer all your questions:

1. The characters just came to me while I was writing. When I first started writing, he was going to actually be more like a super hero kind of character who had advanced powers. That died fast.
2. Took me about an hour? I had to stop mid-way because my bosses told me that one of our big projects was defunded, so that took some time. lol
3. And yes, you're right ... Italicizing the words might have helped more.

Thanks for reading!