Portray dead writer without romance ultimately (8)
I believe the answer is:
describe
'portray' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'dead writer without romance ultimately' is the wordplay.
'dead' becomes 'd' (abbreviation in government records).
'writer' becomes 'scribe' (scribe is a kind of writer).
'without' is an insertion indicator ('without' can be similar in meaning to 'outside').
'ultimately' suggests the final letters.
The final letter of 'romance' is 'e'.
'd'+'scribe'='dscribe'
'dscribe' placed around 'e' is 'DESCRIBE'.
(Other definitions for describe that I've seen before include "Depict" , "style" , "Report in detail" , "Give an account of extremely" , "Give verbal portrait of" .)