When truing wheels, I go gradually. Turn the wheel to a spot where it is out of true (rim rubs against the truing stand indicators), make at a 1/4 turn (in the appropriate direction) in the nipples at that location, then - whether the rim is true or not - move to the next trouble spot. Keep going around and around. Little by little, get the rim true. Eventually go to 1/8 turns.
Also, I try to spread the larger adjustments over a few spokes. Not just tighten this one spoke, but also loosen the neighboring spokes on the other side, a little. That helps avoid creating low spots .
This is the kind of thing that isn't explained very well anywhere that I've read, and I do have "the book" too. I discovered while building my set of wheels that 1/4 turns worked pretty well for side to side truing. For radial truing I could go more each time, but this can also throw off the tension if you aren't careful.
When using the truing stand, spin the wheel and while it is turning adjust the knobs until they barely touch the rim on both sides. Now spin the wheel and try to determine which side of the wheel deviates the most from the average position and start there. Turn the wheel slowly and note at which spoke the rim first touches and for how many spokes after that it touches. You will want to pick an even number of spokes and you will make a slight adjustment to that group. This won't change the lateral position much. Spin the wheel again, adjust the knob until it touches, and pick another grouping of spokes to adjust. Once that high point is worked down a little bit then you might go to another spot, maybe on the other side of the wheel. Going 1/4 turn at a time with the nipples will adjust thing gradually and by identifying high points on both sides and working on them one by one, you will gradually get the wheels true.
When I built my wheels I first screwed each spoke on a set number of turns, the same number for every spoke. Then I went around the wheel and tightened each spoke by one turn. Then I did it again. At some point the wheel seemed to be getting close to the proper tightness. It wasn't very true though. I did some rough truing and got that fairly good, then I started checking tensions with the gauge and concentrated on that for awhile. I went around the wheel 3 or 4 times evening up tensions until I got them in the range that I wanted. Then I only needed slight truing to get the wheels straight.
Many years ago I watched someone in a shop build a set of wheels. He built 2 wheels in about an hour. I may have spent 5 hours fooling with mine. If a person doesn't enjoy working on their own stuff and doesn't enjoy using something that they built, they are better off buying wheels and using that time to do something else.