Man penning volume, a work of fiction (5)
I believe the answer is:
novel
'a work of fiction' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'man penning volume' is the wordplay.
'man' becomes 'noel' (**).
'penning' is an insertion indicator.
'volume' becomes 'v'.
'noel' placed around 'v' is 'NOVEL'.
(Other definitions for novel that I've seen before include "Volume of prose fiction" , "Interestingly new; book" , "literary work" , "New; original" , "Fictional work" .)