Need to Improve Control - any tips?

had the most amazing lucid last night, or perhaps "semi-lucid" would be the better term. i've been lucid in the past, but the dreams lasted seconds, it seems as soon as i realised i was lucid the dream would end a few moments later. last night, the dream went on ages, and pretty much followed the script i'd wanted to dream about. the thing is though, it seemed that i wasn't 100% in control, and seemed to keep slipping back into non-lucidity. i guess a lot of this will be down to practice, but is there anything else that can help control? eg, i was planning that when i went around a corner and into a room, someone would be there, but when i got there, she wasn't - there was a lot of other DCs instead. i asked them where she was and they told me so i went, and actually found her, which was very cool i thought, but again, at that point the dream lost lucidity a bit and i was back to watching. i did remember to do stuff to try and ground me, like touching stuff (not her, lol) and that worked, but i'm curious as to why lucidity kept slipping away then returning, is this usual, or was i doing something wrong, or missing out something? another example i forgot to mention, was that i seemed able to conjure up a pump-action shotgun, it seemed to work partly - the pump worked etc - but it didn't fire.

TIA

Well, being in complete control of the dream is pretty much impossible, but really I prefer it like that; it would be too easy.
I think dreams need a "reason" to do things, like you - you will not do anything for no reason. So just, like, put in the emotions, maybe shout what you want to do, use an object, eat a pill, flex your muscles... I personally use some hand signs as I scream how I named the "power".

For the lucidity problem, that' s quite normal; you've only got 3 lucid dreams already, so don' t worry about it - just don' t do things too exiting or try not to get into the continuity of the dream's plot, use your freedom.

I'd have to completely disagree with what Higat stated.
I've had the pleasure of multiple instances where I've had complete control over my dreams.
This in itself is not a rare occurrence, but to quite the contrary, extremely common.
The problem you cited of 'slipping back and forth' between lucidity and non-lucidity is a problem that plagues many beginners.
It can be alleviated by ensuring you're confident that you're lucid, and maintaining that state of self-awareness. This will synergise excellently with dream stabilization. If you need any help, I'd be more than happy to help you, so just shoot me a PM! Alternately, you're welcome to visit my DEILD thread. :)

many thanks yuppie, i'm already familiar w/ your guide :-)

i think part of the issue is that this is, in effect, my first time : as i said, i've had lucidity before, but the dreams barely lasted any time. instead of looking at the lack of control as a problem, i'm taking the attitude that i continually REgained control as a positive - it's all how you look at things!

anyways, the whole event was fascinating, from the way it followed my script, to the way it improvised greatly, to the way it wandered off on its own path sometimes and came up w/ some total WTFness (sometimes i don't know whether to be entertained by the things my brain dreams up, or to be terrified, lol). i'm hoping this is the event that will really kickstart things and give me that subconscious "see, you CAN do it" that will help make future attempts easier.

cheers

Absolute dream control is essentially possible, I come close to it in a lot of my lucid dreams. I guess the most effective way to learn is just through practice but you can get better if specifically focus on tasks which will stress your brain and thinking about the meaning of the dream world in the dream will help as well. A key to dream control is that you must understand what it means to be dreaming, you have to consider every aspect of what you are doing and what underlying process is causing it. Have a think about this and you will realize that every action in the dream world probably takes less calories to think of then lifting your finger. Once you can saturate your dreams with the thought that you are in full control and that nothing is out of your reach since it is all imaginary things become a lot easier.
If something is holding you back in a dream, finding a solution shouldn't be hard if you understand the dream world, you are only limited by your creativity.

dammit.
woke up, too my galant etc as before, seemingly flat-out nothing happened this time tho. later on however, i did what i think was a DEILD, it was amazing again, i deliberately reached out to feel a stone wall to ground myself and could feel it as real as anything, and then - as typical of all but one of my lucids - it just ended :-(
what's up w/ that, i thought the grounding trick was pretty successful? anything else i can try. the dream just ended, not slowly faded, so it's not like i had a chance to recover.
tia

A good way to ensure that you don't slip in and out of lucidity is to split yourself off from the original dream plot, so that you don't get sucked back into the story. As hard as it may be, your main issue seems to be with confidence. You have to try and be more confident about yourself in your dreams. Know that you are the one making the dream, understand the consequences of your actions and you will gain complete control. It will take practice, but over time you will see longer and longer lucid dreams because you will instinctively be confident of your abilities in your dreams.

Good luck!

maybe confidence is an issue. i keep thinking that now i DEFINITELY KNOW i can lucid, it should be easier because that doubt's not there. and then i'll start getting zero results again and maybe the doubt creeps in. the mental lucid i had a couple weeks back, was due to galantamine etc, so i tried the exact same thing last week - very little if any result. last friday i did the same again : nothing. i even woke up two hours later w/ nothing but the usual dreams to show and took the dose again, and still had zero result. dunno if i'm just totally tolerant to the stuff now! it's very frustrating to find something that gave a phenomenal result, but those results seem to be totally unrepeatable for me.

trying to work on DILD and DEILD stuff though as i don't want to be supp-reliant.