Making one's name as a writer (7)
I believe the answer is:
signing
'making' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with communicating as well as being present participle verbs.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'one's name as a writer' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'name' could be 'si' and 'si' is found within the answer.
'writer' could be 'i' (the person who is writing these clues) and 'i' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for signing that I've seen before include "means of communication?" , "Autographing" , "Writing" , "recent addition to team" .)