Could you write a comic novel?

Last week, we learned the sad news that David Lodge, the English author known for his Campus Trilogy, died at age 89.

His comic novels have been described as 'masterful.'

Could you write a comic novel?

David Lodge's Rummidge, a fictional English Midland university modelled on Birmingham University in England, forms the backdrop for his satirical Campus Trilogy: Changing Places, Small World, and Nice Work.’

Lodge’s art shows the influence of Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and T.S. Eliot’s, but he’s probably best known as an English humourist, using comic techniques (especially satire) and ingenious wordplay, in the style of P. G. Wodehouse, to criticise and judge the morals of society.

In his memoir ‘Writer’s Luck,’ Lodge smoothly argued that novels have a 'dual nature' in that they are both conceptual artworks and commercial products.

Here’s how you might know if you’re a humourist or satirist:

• You find wordplay fun and you love to experiment with the sounds and textures of the words you write

• You like to incorporate spoonerisms, obscure vocabulary, and double entendres into your writing

• You enjoy making portmanteaus. (Joining two existing words to invent a fresh word.)

• You enjoy deliberately mixing-up similar-sounding words to cause mischief!

• You use wry sarcasm and cheerful irony to illuminate even the most boring aspects of life

• You see humour in everything and write about the silliness of ordinary things in an entertaining manner

• Your characters are well-known for their clever retorts and rapid-fire comebacks

• You like to illustrate ‘the funnier side’ of life

Let me know if you are writing (or you have written) a comic novel. Share your book title(s) below!