Hi and welcome to DV!

What happened to you when you were attempting a WILD was completely normal. You don't go into REM when you fall asleep during the night, that's why you should only attempt WILD's during a nap or during a WBTB several hours into sleep.

Doing RC's in a dream is not something you just start doing because you start trying. Questioning your reality whenever you experience something out of the ordinary has to become a habit. With strong intentions though it can happen, but if you don't question things in waking life, then you won't see any meaning to do it in the dream. It'll come in time if you keep on practicing.

If you try to WILD during a WBTB you'll probably end up in a dream soon after hitting SP. Once in SP you'll start hallucinating most likely. Just be a passive observer until whatever you're seeing is solid enough to be an actual dream. Then interact with that dream and activate your senses. Or you can induce one by imagining a certain scenario.

What you do when you write down keywords is to activate your memory of that dream. The more details you try to remember the better your recall gets. Aslong as you try to remember them in the morning your recall will get better. However you want to do that is up to you, but writing down keywords is the best way to go at it because it doesn't take much time.