Dreaming of not being at work? Guard and writer! (12)
I believe the answer is:
absentminded
'dreaming' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'not being at work? guard and writer' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'not' could be 'nt' (synonyms) and 'nt' is located in the answer.
'being' could be 'mind' (mind is a kind of being) and 'mind' is found in the answer.
'writer' could be 'ed' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'ed' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'abse' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for absentminded that I've seen is " appear lost".)