Will add loop to sans-serif characters, excluding story heading, for a fee (12)
I believe the answer is:
professional
'will' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how one could define the other.
'add loop to sans-serif characters excluding story heading for a fee' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
an anagram of 'for' is 'rof' which is present in the answer.
'characters' could be 'pes' (pe is a kind of character) and 'pes' is present in the leftover letters.
'a' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for professional that I've seen before include "Not amateur" , "someone performing for a fee maybe" , "Qualified" , "Deliberate infringement to prevent the other side scoring" , "Skilled career person" .)