1. Me too, my writing's messy, can barely read them too. I keep a notebook on my nightstand, for school whenever I remember a dream, I keep one in my pencil case, and for when I'm on the laptop, I have a file here. What I do is come up with keywords, then expand on them later. Because of the countless words I write, one of them would at least be legible and remind me the rest unreadable parts. Dunno if this will help, but it works for me.
2. I haven't been able to do it in a really really long time, but the way I do it, I chant mantras in my head the moment I feel the strongest of the vibrations, "1... am I dreaming? 2... am I dreaming?", and so on, that's the easiest technique for me, just experiment what technique works best for you.
3. I usually try to regulate it by counting by three's, and I try to relax as much as possible focusing on the void before me. Like I said, just experiment on whichever works best for you.

hope I helped