The writer, drunk outside hotel, an American (10)

'american' is the definition.
(I know that Minnesotan is a type of american)

'the writer drunk outside hotel an' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is present in the answer.
'writer' could be 'i' (the person who is writing these clues) and 'i' is found within the answer.
'an' could be 'a' and 'a' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?