Confused author had recalled being gripped by gut feeling (10)
I believe the answer is:
indistinct
'confused' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'author had recalled being gripped by gut feeling' is the wordplay.
'author' becomes 'i' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'had' becomes 'd' (in contractions e.g. 'I'd', 'you'd' etc).
'recalled' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (to recall can mean to bring something back).
'being gripped by' indicates putting letters inside.
'gut feeling' becomes 'instinct' (I've seen this before).
'i'+'d'='id'
'id' in reverse letter order is 'di'.
'di' put within 'instinct' is 'INDISTINCT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for indistinct that I've seen before include "Not clearly defined" , "Obscure" , "Blurred" .)