Long to finish a story and get paid (5)
I believe the answer is:
yearn
'long' is the definition.
('yearn' can be a synonym of 'long')
'finish a story and get paid' is the wordplay.
'finish' indicates one should take the final letters.
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'get paid' becomes 'earn' (I've seen this before).
The final letter of 'story' is 'y'.
'y'+'earn'='YEARN'
'to' is the link.
(Other definitions for yearn that I've seen before include "Mark of injury" , "Have strong desire" , "Desire strongly" , "Desire, want" , "Feel desire" .)