Ring about manuscript being twisted and miserable (6)
I believe the answer is:
dismal
'miserable' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'ring about manuscript being twisted' is the wordplay.
'ring' becomes 'dial' (I've seen this before**).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'manuscript' becomes 'ms' (abbreviation for manuscript).
'being twisted' says the letters should be written backwards.
'ms' written backwards gives 'sm'.
'dial' placed around 'sm' is 'DISMAL'.
'and' is the link.
(Other definitions for dismal that I've seen before include "Wretched" , "Lugubrious" , "Dull and dreary" , "describes economic science" , "down in the dumps" .)