My first two "Builds" were watching my friend do them (and passing him the correct components etc.) That was a very helpful start.
Then I built a Rift Octave Fuzz, with very clear instructions , and it worked first time. Even modded a trimpot to a pot on the outside.
So I was expecting the next, a Fuzzrite, to be a breeze. But most things went wrong. When I finally got sound out of it, I had the pots wrong way, so volume and fuzz kind of worked backwards. Annoying. So I decided to desolder those pots.
I ended up destroying the whole thing. Apparently soldering technique and desoldering ditto are quite different... I ended up thinking I would get back to troubleshoot later on, but instead got a new Fuzzrite kit and built one that worked. And the first board went to the spare parts section.
Since then I've been drawn to more and more complex builds and I learn a lot that I have great use of for more normal builds.
So my tips (might have been mentioned elsewhere) besides the 101 and all other who write in this thread is to build a very simple audio probe.
Very googlable: Use a phono jack, alligator clip and a cap. It was very revealing to trace the audio on the board. If you have or can get looper to have your hands free from strumming, even better.
Using a DMM in "beep" mode is also my best help so far.
I have also dabbled a little bit with "from schematics to strip/vero board builds" and find that breadboarding might be a bit tedious, but it will show if all components "work" and "work together". Once that sings, you know you are on your way.
The guitar and amp cables to out and in, is a common miss for me too. I now always use blue wire for in and green for out. (YMMV)
Pulling existing pedalboard in and out and swapping cables when testing also cause a lot of confusion. One favorite is to have a noise gate pedal in the chain in front, but it interacts in the FX loop (4 cable method). And it is an auto-turn-on pedal as well. So I had some annoying volume drops until I found and turned off the FX loop or that pedal. And sadly, not just once...
Really keen to follow your progress, there is a lot of help, support and dare I say it
in this forum, so keep reaching out.