Have you ever notcied that the new things or any thing that you try to do in an LD is something you have thought of while awake? I have never been able to come up with an idea on my own while dreaming that I haven’t heard or seen somewhere before.
My advice is generally to decide what to do before you go to sleep. If I don’t pick any purpose and have an unexpected lucid dream, it is “lost” to flying.
Monk, I think what you’re saying makes perfect sense and I tend to agree. But then the thought just came to mind that I act differently depending on what elements are in my LD. This morning, for example, I looked up my driveway in an LD and saw an old car sitting there. I had never seen it before but commanded it to come to me and it did. Now outside of a dream, I never have thought: “If a weird car is sitting in my driveway, I will call it to me and look at it”. Things just happen. So do you find you act differently depending on the circumstances, or only dream of circumstances you have imagined before?
And r3m0t: I agree as well. If I don’t pre-plan specific things I want to accomplish, I will always go to my default fun: flying. It’s great and all, but LD possibilities are endless so I want to experience some of them SOMETIME! I’ve finally started making a list of things I wanted to do which means I can always add more once I’ve accomplished the original list.
Interestingly, if I don’t think of what I’d like to dream about, my mind selects a place for me and it starts off there, and then if I remember something I wanted in it, I can add it. A lot of times this happens, by brain “thinks” of a location for me (usually it’s the same place) and then I continue my LD. That happens when I’m exhausted and fall right to sleep, otherwise I stay up fantazing and thinking.