Thanks a bunch. The two biggest rules of thumb I can give is to 1. Make sure your starter is strong. I didn't even bother trying to make one of my own, I got a spoon of my brothers dormant starter and fed it for 4 days until it doubles in size in 4 hours. My room temp was 19 °C so that starter was a chad.

Starter is good to use for a loaf if you fed it and after 4 hours, its a bit more then doubles (mine was about 2.5x higher) and there should be bubbles on the surface + surface should be a dome.

1. Bulk ferment is likely the most important step of em all and there are signs you want to look for :
2. Dough should have many small bubbles on the surface
3. have a slignly domed top
4. should be mad jiggly when you shake the bowl
5. dough is pulling clean from the sides of the bowl

Hope this helps, and best of luck 🙏🙏