For about an hour, were formulating the question (5)
I believe the answer is:
where
'the question' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'for about an hour' is the wordplay.
'for' becomes 'were' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'an hour' becomes 'h'.
'were' going around 'h' is 'WHERE'.
'were formulating' is the link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for where that I've seen before include "enquiry" , "At which point" , "A question of place?" , "In which position?" , "a question of location" .)