Interview with Allie Lynn

Hello everyone! Today I have a special interview with my good friend Allie Lynn! She gave me the pleasure of getting to interview her and share that interview with all of you. Enjoy!

• Tell us a little bit about yourself and your writing journey! 

I’ve been a reader and storyteller all my life (big surprise XD), but I didn’t start seriously writing with the idea of publication until I was nine. I was majorly horse crazy back then, and tired of seeing the same books with either a huge focus on romance (at like, twelve and thirteen years old), repetitive cliches, or completely inaccurate horse information. I got so fed up with it I decided to write my own. My mom told me about a little girl my age who self published on Amazon and made thousands of dollars with her book. I wanted to do that, so she told me to write a book and she would edit it.

Thankfully, life got insane and the highly cliche and cheesy story never made it past a notebook draft. But I was hooked on a dream of becoming published.

Since then, I’ve completed three full length novels over 50k (one of which was a 122k dystopian fantasy that I finished drafting in 63 days), eighteen novellas, and I’ve forgotten how many short stories XP. I also run a website called Equineonthemind.com specifically targeted for the horseless horse crazy teen, where I talk about horses, books, and writing.

• How long have you been writing? 

I kind of answered this question above XD. My recorded manuscripts go back to when I was six, so roughly twelve years.

• Where are you in your writing journey right now? And what are you currently working on? 

  When I’m not running my website and email list, I am working on the two or three WIPs I switch between. I always like having a few projects going so I can work according to mood. Currently, I’m editing my future lead magnet for 2025 (with the code name of Project: Watercolor) which is a YA coming-of-age contemporary novella. I can’t say much more about it, other than it’s about horses, Missouri, autism, and the battle of letting people go.

Other than that, I’m in the first draft of a superhero dystopian called Dust of the Arena, which is basically Jenna Terese’s Ignite meets The Hunger Games and The Phantom Stallion, about a found family group of superpowered orphans, an army prison for supers in Area 51, underground gladiator battles, and of course, a Nevada horse ranch. I’ve got one other project on the backburner, Protectors, my dystopian fantasy, but that won’t be front and center again for another few years.

• What is your favorite part about writing? 

Ack I hate having to choose… I’m an ADHD kid, so anything that makes my prefrontal cortex light up is immediately enjoyable. I kind of live in the stories in my head 24/7. Even if I’m doing something else, I’m still thinking about the characters and plot and themes. I guess my favorite part is hanging out with the characters, orchestrating their arcs and finding the utter satisfaction of helping them grow and shaping them into better people. I always start my stories with the characters, because without them plot and theme fall apart.

• Who are your favorite writers? 

R.M. Scheller is my number one favorite but I am highly biased because she is also my beloved mentor. I also love Nova McBee, Jenna Terese, Heather Rose, Terri Farley, Sara Ella, Nadine Brandes, Marguerite Henry, Josiah DeGraaf, Brett Harris, Suzanne Collins, Millie Florence, K.M. Weiland, Tim Shoemaker, Christopher Paolini, Charles Dickens, Jean Craighead George, S.D. Smith, Gillian Bronte Adams (whom I actually had the pleasure of interviewing on my site), Marissa Meyers… and if I keep going we’re going to be here all day. I have very eclectic book tastes.

• What is one piece of advice you would give other writers? 

One piece… hmmm.

I’d say knowing the difference between writing from a wound, and writing from a scar. I’d be the first to tell you that writing is amazing for healing from trauma, and I have several notebooks specifically dedicated to therapy writing.

But what I see a lot of writers doing– especially new writers– is that they hear the old adage “write what you know”, so they dig into their wounds and write stories based on painful experiences… when they themselves have not fully healed yet to be able to turn those wounds into scars. I tell people all the time that therapy writing cannot be professional writing. Editing is hard and in order for your stories to be the best they can, you need editing. And that process is made all the more painful when you use writing as a means of therapy. I tried with two novels, and both times I was burned so badly I wrote fanfics for an entire year so I wouldn’t have to have people edit things.

So know the difference between your wounds and scars, and don’t write from raw wounds. It’s completely fine to write from scars, so long as you’re not cutting yourself open again. I separate my writing by format– therapy writing goes in physical notebooks, professional writing goes on the computer. It really helps to train myself to avoid cutting my scars open in my professional writing so it can endure critique and edits.

• What resources have helped you in your writing? 

I’m a huge podcast girl XD because it’s so easy to multitask and work on other projects while listening to a podcast. I’d recommend K.M. Weiland’s site, Helping Writers Become Authors, starting with the character arc course. That really helped me with understanding how characters fit into the overall plot. Some people start with her outlining course and get immediately overwhelmed– DO NOT DO THAT. Go through her story structure, character arc, and scene structure courses first. The outlining course is specifically to take people from bare bones concept to full on outline. Once you understand some of her other courses, the outlining course is much less overwhelming.

I also like Writing Excuses, because it’s short and there’s a variety of information there from writing nonfiction books to pitching to certain audiences.  And if you write action scenes, I one hundred percent recommend Fight Write, which explores the physical, mental, technical, and medical sides of fight scenes and spilling blood in your books.

Finally, for the serious writers, I recommend checking out AuthorMedia, which is all about platforming, marketing, and publishing. It’s more geared toward adults than teenagers, but it’s still an excellent resource.

• Where can we find you online? 

You can find me on my website, equineonthemind.com! I’m currently offering a western MG novella for those who sign up for my email list. My goal is to reach one thousand subscribers by the end of next year (I’m currently at 200), so if you sign up for my email list you can get the inside scoop on all the fun promotions and freebies for email list members I’ll be sending out in 2025.

• Anything else you would like to add?

Don’t be afraid to branch out of your comfort zone and learn your voice. I learned mine through writing dozens of fanfics. Try different writing styles and read a variety of novels. Read biographies and poetry and classics and YA and contemporary and fantasy and dystopian. Experiment with mimicking different writing voices, but don’t stay in them forever. Experiment with different genres through short story and flash fiction. By trying a little bit of everything, you can find what you like, what you don’t like, what works and what doesn’t, and turn it into your own writing voice.

Until next time, 

Aliya Gerow