The phrase "an attempt at something" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when describing an effort or endeavor to achieve or accomplish a particular goal or task.
Example: "Her novel was an attempt at capturing the complexities of human relationships."
Alternatives: "an effort to" or "a try at".
They signal an attempt at something new.
His latest presidential flirtation is an attempt at something even more ambitious: making campaign-finance laws funny.
Muse is an attempt at something that's been tried a few times before with little success – a freeform music generating game.
We demand innovation, then mock an attempt at something novel… even when that attempt has been clearly labeled as an experiment since day one.
While building on the massive world of the Final Fantasy series, it takes a new spin in an attempt at something fresh".
-- also a mother, "Laura" is an attempt at something light in the crime-and-detecting arena, but "Castle" or "Monk" this is not.
Like those, this has the unmistakable feel of an attempt at doing something new.
China also sent a top foreign policy official, State Councilor Dai Bingguo, to South Korea over the weekend and announced that a North Korean official would travel to Beijing on Tuesday, in what appeared to be an attempt at mediation, something unusual for China in its complex relationship with the Koreas.
Knowing that you tried is an accomplishment and realizing that even a failed attempt at something new is a measure of success in that you had the courage to take a risk and made the effort to act and take a leap of faith.
Adventures on the Wheels of Steel was so different that, unless you were immersed in South Bronx pop culture, it was hard to tell on first listen whether it was a joke or a serious attempt at something new, whether it was the future of music or just a novelty party record.
It wasn't: it was a serious attempt at something new, a recognizable image painted with a vigor and spontaneity bforrowed from abstraction.
