Cryptic crossword clue
Hipster composed no lines for a time before writing 10

The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 10 letter word PREHISTORY

I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
P
R
E
H
I
S
T
O
R
Y

Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "time before writing /time before writing" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case time before writing /time before writing = prehistory.
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.
This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.

What does PREHISTORY mean?

PREHISTORY noun
  1. (properly) History before written records, inclusive of both
  2. Any past time (even recent) treated as such a distant, unknowable era.
  3. (often as pre-history) The history leading up to some event, condition, etc.

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