Literary failure almost leads to row becoming worse (9)
I believe the answer is:
naughtier
'worse' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'literary failure almost leads to row' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'failure' could be 'naught' (naught is a kind of failure) and 'naught' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'becoming' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for naughtier that I've seen before include "Worse" , "more unruly" , "More mischievous" , "Less well behaved" , "More badly behaved" .)