Hello all, first time poster and pretty new to lucid dreaming.

This is how i'm going about lucid dreaming.

I'm keeping a dream journal, iv had 3 dreams in the past 4 nights, the last two nights i haven't been able to remember anything even though i tell myself before i goto sleep that i will remember my dreams when i wake up, over and over again.

How many days or weeks or even months of dreaming do i have to jot down to develop a dream sign? so far in two of my dreams its included a cigarette, even though i don't smoke that much.

When i go through and develop a dream sign what do i do after that?

From what i have read on some sites is that once you develop a dream sign when you see it in reality you automatically do a few reality checks so that when your next dream comes around, and that dream sign is there, your mind will be tricked into doing that reality check, and say if you pull your finger and it stretches you will become lucid. Or maybe its even more simple than that? tips/advice or whatever is much appreciated, thanks.