Involve the writer in upset over British fuel (7)
I believe the answer is:
embroil
'involve' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'the writer in upset over british fuel' is the wordplay.
'the writer' becomes 'me' (the person who is writing these clues).
'in upset' is a reversal indicator (in a down clue, letters go up).
'over' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'british' becomes 'br'.
'fuel' becomes 'oil' (I've seen this before).
'me' back-to-front is 'em'.
'em'+'br'+'oil'='EMBROIL'
(Other definitions for embroil that I've seen before include "Incriminate" , "Involve in argument or quarrel" , "Involve in trouble - rile mob (anag)" , "In difficulties, involve" , "Involve (someone) in trouble" .)