> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://keithhayden.net/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # How to Weave Folklore Into Fiction Without Lore Dumping | Novel Revealed - URL: https://keithhayden.net/how-to-weave-folklore-into-fiction-without-lore-dumping-novel-revealed/ - Published: 2026-10-24T15:34:39.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-24T15:34:39.000Z - Description: “We were hunted refugees violating curfew during military blockade instigated by a tripartite geopolitical contest. There was no time for this.” - Author: Keith Hayden - Tags: clefo > “We were hunted refugees violating curfew during military blockade instigated by a tripartite geopolitical contest. There was no time for this.” \-*Cereus & Limnic: Escape From Okinawa Type B* *Keith Hayden* ## Clip (45 secs) 0:00 /0:46 1× ## Full podcast episode (6 mins) ## Curated Video Text (Human Rewritten) One of my favorite things about writing fiction is writing folklore into my stories and viewing it through the lens of the narrative that the story is inserted in. I know when a lot of authors do their research or they find something cool about history they often lore dump. We all fall into this trap. We're eager to integrate lesser known tidbits of culture or history into our stories. As a writer, I love history, languages, and culture, my own, and any that I encounter through people or my travels. It's tempting to just put the Wikipedia page or the summary into the character's mouth and have them just talk about it and just say, "Oh, this is the legend of this place," or whatever. I feel like that's the lowest level of inserting this type of lore into your book. **The higher level, which I've executed today, is making it a part of the story in the world of the narrative.** So in this scene, one of the characters interacts with a local legend on Iejima Island in Okinawa. She's actively participating and doing the ritual that the legend says. Her action has implications for later books in the series. In that way it educates the reader on this obscure Japanese superstition while providing worldbuilding expansion for the rest of the book series. On top of that, there's a third level of integrating lore into your story. That's making it influence the real time reality of your characters in a scene. We're not just having her participating in the ritual or doing the act. We're seeing her actions through the main protagonist. He's looking at her as she performs the act, and we get a beat of horror. Her appearance isn't what he remembers. They've been separated for several days, and now all of a sudden this previously poised scientist is looking sickly and malnourished. But the island is occupied by military forces from three different countries, they're evading, and there's really no time to discuss it. There's all these questions he has: *What have you been doing the last few days?* *What have you been eating?* *Are you okay?* *How are you feeling?* There's no time to run down that list before the chapter ends and they encounter another character who's probably not there on friendly terms. Writing about this without spoiling anything has been challenging. But I wanted to share the writing craft advice embedded in this novel writing session. In summary, when you find cool research that you want to put into your book, don't just dump the Wikipedia or AI version in there just because it relates to your story. Ask yourself: *How can I really make this organic to my characters, to my story, to my series?* *How can I make it not feel just like the author found an interesting fact that they wanted to say, and then they just had the characters say it on their behalf?* Just try and reach beyond that. I feel like the reader will definitely be more satisfied because we're not only getting novel information about real-world lore or real-world subjects or topics, but we're also getting advancement and deepening of the story world. So that's it for this quick *Novel Revealed* podcast. If you like it, like, subscribe, find it, listen to it. There's always deeper stuff on my website, [keithhayden.net](https://keithhayden.net/), if you want to go deeper into writing craft or this story—this military sci-fi horror story that I'm writing, *Cereus & Limnic: Escape From Okinawa Type B*. ## Full writing session (37 mins) ## CLEFOTA\_Exhibit 065 - AI Analysis (45 mins) ![audio-thumbnail](https://storage.ghost.io/c/18/bf/18bf29db-1cec-4857-a9dc-e2e94a86d2bf/content/media/2026/10/CLEFOTA_Exhibit_065_Analysis_thumb.png) CLEFOTA Exhibit 065 Analysis 0:00 /2708.32907 1× ## Sign up for Keith Hayden | Digital Novelist I tell stories across mediums: novels, animated shorts, music, and experimental digital narratives. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. Read the story early: [Read](https://keithhayden.net/cereus-limnic-escape-from-okinawa-type-b-novel/)