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[kittydesade]

The volitional form of a verb is a less formal, more casual equivalent of ましょう. You can use it to suggest a plan to a close friend, for example:

る-verbs: Drop the final る and add　よう
食べる　食べよう

う-verbs: Drop the final う and add -oう　
行く　行こう
待つ　待とう
話す　話そう
読む　読もう
死ぬ　死のう
買う　買おう
泳ぐ　泳ごう
取る　取ろう

Irregular verbs:
くる　こよう
する　しよう

明日は授業がないから、こんや、　どこかに食べに行こう。
We don't have any classes tomorrow. Let's go some place for dinner tonight.

けっこんしようよ。
Let's get married!

You can use the volitional plus the question particle か to ask for an opinion in your offer or suggestion.
手伝おうか。　（てつだおうか。）
Shall I lend you a hand?

友だちがおもしろいと言っていたから、　この映画を見ようか。
Shall we see this film? My friends say it is good.

今度、　いつあおうか。
When shall we three meet again?

We use the volitional と思っています　（とおもっています） to talk about our determinations.

毎日三時間日本語を勉強しようと思っています。
I've decided to/I'm going to study Japanese for three hours a day.

You can also use the volitional + とおもいます, which suggests that the decision to perform the activity is being made on the spot at the time of speaking. とおもっています, in contrast, tends to suggest that you have already decided to do something. (Also have a handwritten note saying the latter is more common...)

1.
一万円あげましょう。　何につかいますか。
I will give you 10,000 yen. What will you use it for?
かんじの辞書を買おうともいます。
I will buy a kanji dictionary. (Decision made on the spot.)

2.
りょうしんから一万円もらったんですか。　何につかうんですか。
You got 10,000 yen from your parents? What are you going to use it for?
漢字の辞書を買おうと思っています。
I am going to buy a kanji dictionary. (Decision already made.)


Really, I should have typed that up last night when we got home from dinner and everything, only I had the mental energy of a turnip.

Much better tonight! Everything done except guitar practice, which I think will happen to wind down. And! And and, heard back from my mixer, post-apocalyptic mecha death revenge squadron survivor person is a go! Whichever of those elements I end up integrating and whatever this turns out to be. I have a soundtrack, I have several mental images, and I have about three lines of the start of something I never really knew what it was to begin with, but it fits pretty damn well. So! Let's see what we can pull out of my ass.

I do this. Quite a bit. I sign up for a challenge that features as an offered fandom "original" and then I go "well, now what am I writing?" and I end up writing a boy's school for witches set in Lovecraftian/Stephen Kingian New England with a touch of ... what, British boarding school, is that? And god knows what all else, or I end up writing scorched earth and sky science fiction with mecha and bitter, revenge-filled survivors. Or I watch too much Sons of Anarchy and end up writing demon bikers. Or something. Or I start a noir setting and pause halfway through and end up two years later with a ginormous (or at least city-spanning) world. Go figure.

Right. I suppose this is where I stop screwing around and start actually working on writing things.