American writer, almost beat, getting lyrical (6)
I believe the answer is:
poetic
'lyrical' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'american writer almost beat' is the wordplay.
'american writer' becomes 'poe' (Edgar Allan Poe).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (almost the whole word is kept).
'beat' becomes 'tick' (synonyms).
'tick' with its last letter taken away is 'tic'.
'poe'+'tic'='POETIC'
'getting' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for poetic that I've seen before include "lines?" , "Beautiful - imaginative" , "Written in verse" , "Concerning metrical writing" , "Having rhythm and beauty" .)