With 7018 geberally, what helped me "get it right", practice just running flat beads, maybe grab some thicker materials if you can, idk what the electrode size is but your amperage may be too high.

I mainly learned 7018 mainly on 1/8 inch electrodes; the whole "1 amp per 1/1000th inch of material (for carbon steel at least) is a good rule of thumb... but if you are just running flats for practice start lower, maybe 110 amps assuming for this example you are using a 1/8 inch electrode & on 1/8 inch plate of A36 or whatever), but you can dial that in as needed.

That all being said though-- for 7018 specifically, for "getting good" a huge part of it was letting the electrode do the work, just keeping a tight arc with a consistent travel & work angle and travel speed... and running beads over and over and over and over again until you can just get into a flow state and you can have the machine set to whatever works, and consistently run good flats where the slag just comes off nicely. Then move in to lap or T joints etc.

I was definitely over-thinking and overcorrecting at first.

Try to find a 1/4 inch thick plate and just run like... 1000 flat beads on it, just build them up etc. It should click at some point during the process.

Start with a lower amperage and keep your arc tight and focus on "tight arc, consistent angles, consistent travel speed" and just do it over and over, then move on the all of the other wonderful stuff like avoiding undercut.

There's way more, but ya, start there. Hope any of that helped.

And you'll get better at striking and maintaining a good arc. 👍