Creative work left in reserve, writing for newspaper? (7)
I believe the answer is:
article
'writing for newspaper?' is the definition.
(piece of writing in a newspaper)
'creative work left in reserve' is the wordplay.
'creative work' becomes 'art'.
'left' becomes 'l' (common abbreviation).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'reserve' becomes 'ice' (I've seen this before).
'l' placed within 'ice' is 'icle'.
'art'+'icle'='ARTICLE'
(Other definitions for article that I've seen before include "thing required" , "Object and newspaper story" , "Newspaper item" , "Division" , "Particular object and newspaper report" .)