Cousin INFP, I'd go to the other end of the process. With our characteristic INFJ polychromatic shifting array of perspectives, we can (and do) inhabit different characters IRL and IFL ("In Fictional Life"), enhancing our ability to put them on stage. Yes, it could be said that novelists etc. are doing the same thing; but that's not quite true. There's a whole continuum, of course; but my opinion is that what novelists tend to give us in differing characters is different aspects of themselves; ideally, playwrights tend to bring actually different characters onstage. The one comes more naturally to the INFP, the other to the INFJ (IMHO SVP).