Crossword Genius

They wrote extremely romantic verses in novel (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

scriveners

'they wrote' is the definition.
(historical term for a scribe)

'extremely romantic verses in novel' is the wordplay.
'extremely' suggests removing the centre (only the extremes of the word are used).
'novel' indicates an anagram (letters in a new or novel order).
'romantic' with its centre removed is 'rc'.
'rc'+'verses'+'in'='rcversesin'
'rcversesin' is an anagram of 'SCRIVENERS'.

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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