One who tries to be a writer? (8)
I believe the answer is:
essayist
'writer?' is the definition.
(I know that essayist is a type of writer)
'one who tries to be a' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'one' could be 'i' (Roman numeral) and 'i' is found within the answer.
'tries' could be 'essays' (essay can mean to try or attempt something) and 'essays' is found within the remaining letters.
A single letter 't' remains 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 essayist that I've seen before include "kind of writer" , "One who writes short pieces on given subject" , "Bacon maybe" , "Writer of pieces on various subjects" , "Writer of little prose pieces" .)