NAP and CAP: “Narrator (or Narrative) Alternate Personality” and “Character Alternate Personality” say not only what they do, but what they are.

Narrators tell stories and characters take part in them, but where do narrators and characters come from and what are they?

Traditionally, narrators and characters have been thought of, not as alternate personalities, which, to fill a need, as in multiple personality, arise within a writer and have minds of their own, but as created constructs, intelligently designed and imagined.

However, my impression from what writers have said about their creative process is that their narrators and characters tend to arise more often like alternate personalities and less often by intelligent design.