Introducing .... Doctor Tallulah Elizabeth Madison Kozlov

I'm sure that every writer has a different process for imagining their characters. My way is to do a character interview with them. It's a lengthy process that has very personal, deep questions mixed with fun, intrinsically useless questions. It helps me get a feel for who the character is, what makes the character laugh, what makes the character smile, what kind of secondary character would make a good best friend for this primary character.

I also need visual assistance too. Not that I don't already have a picture in my head of what the character looks like. I start out with generic details like hair color, eye color, height and weight. Then I do some Googling until I come up with a photograph that instantly screams that characters name.

When I first started the NOPB story with Tallulah I had a rough idea of what I was looking for. She would be tall, curvy, very dark haired, strong and smart but a little internally insecure. My first thought was Sara Ramirez from Grey's Anatomy, but that seemed too mirrored of the character, especially since Tallulah is a doctor.

I found this photograph and I just knew, when I saw it, that she was Tallulah. Not exactly, but mostly, and it would be a great visual aid.



Her real life name is Christina Schmidt and she was an actress on Degrassi several years ago, but now seems to be a plus sized model. But I saw this picture and I thought her image was much the same as I envisioned Tallulah. She is beautiful, but not "Hollywood" either. She looks very strong and sure of herself, but there is still enough youth and innocence in her eyes to imagine she isn't quite as sure of herself as she should be.

So there you have it, Doctor Tallulah Elizabeth Madison Kozlov.

If you had to visually assign a Googled photo to one of your favorite main characters who would it be and why?