Is free will real?

[Angrboda]

Couldn't I say of my ideas and memories that SO MANY are related to this mythical, illusory "self" that this relationship is sufficient to say the self is real? That is, that the self is the keystone which holds all ideas about the world into a coherent web, rather than allowing every experience I've ever had to remain discrete, unrelated, and therefore useless as part of a greater system of thought?

You're defending one poorly defined entity with an even more poorly defined entity? Say it ain't so. An adequate definition of the self has eluded philosophers since time immemorial.