How to use it, you ask? You use it or you lose it.
Nominal features of the whole tone scale:
Completely symmetrical. Each rotation of the scale represents a transposition of the same scale.
Only contains the following intervals (plus compound versions, obviously): M2 M3 A4/d5 A5/m6 m7
The only traditional triadic harmony is augmented. 1 3 ♭5 is also in there and is usable. However, don't expect to find the same sort of tension and release as in the major/minor tonal system.
Nominal features of the octatonic scale:
Symmetrical, every other rotation is a transposition of the original pitch collection. In other words, you can shift a pattern up or down by a minor third and it will always be in the scale.
There is a half-whole rotation, and a whole-half rotation. The former is generally more useful, as it contains a number of usable tonic sonorities. Tertian chords up to a seventh that you can build from the tonic in the HW rotation: i°7, iø7, i7, I7, I7(♭5). Tertian chords up to a seventh that you can build from the tonic in the WH rotation: i°7. See how much more variety there is in HW? Of course, the variety of intervals is ultimately the same over the entire collection, but you may find it easier to work with a major or minor tonic triad rather than a diminished tonic triad.
Bartók tends to organize this scales into tetrachords rather than vertical sonorities. Also note his use of counterpoint and bitonality: by stratifying each hand into a different tonality (either E♭ minor or A minor), he achieves a level or pitch organization that is much more difficult to attain if you try to use all eight tones in a single phrase. Also, I'm guessing that form could be at the root of your issue. If your form sucks, the music won't hold together. Bartók was a monster where formal and developmental technique were concerned, and it shows even in his shortest pieces. If you have no economy and lean on the resources of functional harmony to prop up your music, then you shall crumble once that crutch is stolen from underneath.
There are treatises on this kind of thing, you know. Sylvia Kahan did research on Edmond de Polignac's (probably unpublished) treatise on the octatonic scale. Messiaen wrote about the whole tone scale (as "Mode 1") and the octatonic scale ("Mode 2") as part of his system of Modes of Limited Transposition in Technique de mon language musical. Books such as Stefan Kostka's Materials and Techniques of Twentieth Century Music touch upon these collections, and Berklee says "dooitondadawminit," but who fucking cares? Just write and analyze. There is no fucking common practice for this shit. That said, your best bet might be Antokoletz's book on Bartók.
but I can't seem to incorporate them into my playing without it sounding forced or out of place.
Perhaps your existence is forced or out of place. Music is completely unnatural: it does not happen, or it is not perceived as happening, unless humans force it into being. Embrace your mortality, flawed and woeful creature.