He scorns to earn a living as a writer (8)
I believe the answer is:
satirist
'he scorns to earn a living as a writer' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'he scorns to earn a living as a writer' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'a' is found in the answer.
'writer' could be 'i' (the person who is writing these clues) and 'i' is present in the answer.
'he' could be 'tris' and 'tris' is found within the remaining letters.
The remaining letters 'st' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for satirist that I've seen before include "He sends up" , "Pope, say" , "Swift, perhaps" , "Humorist who uses ridicule, irony and sarcasm" , "Biting comic" .)