sounds like you might have WILDed...but skipped the whole transition phase.
Man, if only it was as easy as that!
regarding getting people to appear...ive found that the best thing to do is not to concentrate too hard. simply expect them to appear. don't make things complicated in a lucid, or at least, no more complicated than they would be in waking life.
For example: You want to see someone in a lucid dream. The easiest way to do this, is to tell yourself they are either round a corner, or behind a door. Because ninety per cent of the time, that's what happens in real life, right?
Getting up to pee in the night is a great way of re entering a dream, provided you don't wake up too much...