Manuscript proceeds haltingly, and is translated into French after a year (10)
I believe the answer is:
palimpsest
'manuscript' is the definition.
(I know that palimpsest is a type of manuscript)
'proceeds haltingly and is translated into french after a year' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'proceeds' could be 'limps' (limping is a kind of proceeding) and 'limps' is located in the answer.
'a' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'pest' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for palimpsest that I've seen before include "Reused parchment" , "recycled document" , "Recycled manuscript" , "Simple taps (anag.); a manuscript" .)