Hey, I'm also a beginner and a very heavy sleeper. I had a horrible time with dream recall. One thing that helped me GREATLY, before i go to bed I set an alarm for 4.5 hours and then every 90 mins after that. With luck these should wake you up during your dreams so you can lay and recall them and write down before returning to bed. After doing this every day for a while I started to do it naturally. You also could attempt trying a DEILD instead of writing down. I haven't had any success with this yet.
Hope this helps!