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If I can "level up" my real life character to have all the right equipment and powers like: charismatically friends w/ everyone, makes lots of easy money, never gets angry, always content, etc... then 100% flow state immersion is great. As the author I throw away the pen.

Yet stories don't work this way. Even if my character achieves these states there has to be *some* sort of story involving these powers overcoming some problem. "Life is suffering" is just saying "Stories need conflict"

Throwing away the pen is the equivalent of dying. It's like how when people commit suicide they first wrap up their life, giving away things, organizing, etc... It's wrapping up the loose ends of the story and preparing to put down the pen.

Becoming the author doesn't give you super powers. You can't suddenly become rich, you can't avoid heart attacks or avoid being unfairly criticized. But it's possible to fake it till you make it through the power of story telling. Especially when we share our stories.

If I feel hopeless in my situation I can read a story about how someone similar in my situation made it out. By writing the story, the author is imbued with aspects of the character b/c modeling the character is part and parcel of writing the story.

Lone-wolf authors can create resolutions to situations that no one else using hackneyed plot devices can think of. They constantly add to the collective story telling arsenal. If one happens to solve the Big Expensive Plot Issue of the day they are hailed as a genius.

These plot devices can be very specific. E.g. the story of a white kid being raised by loving parents learning tons of knowledge on the internet. It's not possible to extract the "free knowledge on the internet" part of the story and shove it into a black kids exp in the hood.

They *are* however flexible in a metaphorical way. Miles Morales as spiderman for example offers an incredible beacon of light for those living in conditions of self-doubt and bad influences.