forcing control?

Finally i have gotten to the point where i have noticed oddities in dreams. For the last four nights i have noticed dream signs to the point where i have concluded that i am dreaming to some extent. However as soon as i do this, the reality of my dream completely disappears, and it feels like i am just imagining im lucid dreaming, if that makes any sense. (as vivid as you imagined a dream as you read this). I think that this might be cause im focusing to hard on keeping the dream stable, but i am asking for more experienced lucid dreamers on some advice to keep the dream as stable as it was when im not lucid.

I know exactly what you mean. I've had the same problem where it feels more like a daydream. Have you tried spinning or rubbimg your hands?

At any rate, something that I've tried and came up with is to focus out some things and transferring that focus to something else. For example, I want a pair of girls to seem very real. They (the girls) do not seem real, yet the background does. Therefore I focus out the setting entirley and put my attention into the girls. Now we, the three of us, are in this white blank void. But since my mind has less to worry about and to imagine the girls seem very real and intense (as are the sensory feelings...) Anyway, that's one tip.

Until you get better, I'd suggest dropping some stuff behind (unimportant things) so the stuff that is more important can seem more real.

It's worked for me.

Spockman has some good tips there. Rubbing your hands together and/or spinning should help.

I have a similar "problem" when I WILD. I use HI/visualization to enter the dream scene, and as I then "seamlessly" enter the dream, it can be hard to tell HI from dream. I have recently come up with some simple tests to see if it's HI or dream, and they always work. First, I see if I can find my hands. If I can see them, then I'm sure that I at least have a dream body. I then move my hand in a fluent motion in front of my eyes, and see if I can fix my eyes on my hand and also move them in a fluent motion. To be able to move your eyes in a fluent motion, you will have to be looking at something actually moving, either in real life with your eyes open, or in a dream. I've tried to do these eye movements when looking at moving HIs or just moving mental images (as in daydreaming) often, and I just can't do it. Maybe doing this will help your problem. :)

I wonder if the reason your LDs are not very vivid and are unstable because you expect it and because you pay attention to the lack of vividness and how unstable the dream is. I know this sounds weird, but if you've read The Nature of Dream Control thread by The Cusp, you should get what I'm saying. If you haven't read at least the first few pages of that thread I seriously reccomend it.

I know that when I pay attention to some aspect of a dream it becomes more pronounced, especially when it is an aspect I don't want or don't like.