Question about Zane in the first Alan Wake *spoilers*

Hopefully I marked this well, I'm pretty new to Reddit. Anyway I need some help from Remedy veterans. So even as far back as AW1 Tor and Odin specifically refer to Alan as Tom and Zane. I know that continues throughout the series and is it's own can of worms. One piece of dialogue I don't understand though. When you hang around and talk to them in Hartman's lodge they say "Heh heh, yeah, that's the one. She makes sure it comes out twisted and wrong. Just ask the Lamp Lady. She knows what happened to that other writer."

Now what does that mean? They are obviously referring to Alan as Tom Zane, so if they think he's Tom Zane then who do they think this other writer is?