Haha you had the same problem I had:

1st lucid dream I tried to take serious action and make a girl I know in real-life appear in my dream . I also woke up xD.

Try slowmorphing, it might work (I'm not even sure if I keep using it as the correct term but whatever).

What I call slowmorphing is that you (for example) take a wall or floor, and try to slowly make someone rise from it.
I dunno about the exact details but it seems to work for me.