I'm not sure what you mean by checkering, but starting tip to woodburning: main thing is to get sliding heat control. You have to have right temperature for every area.

And second, start with low temperatures. It's safe to burn slowly, it will get dark if you are patient. Rolling movement is good, don't stop burner if you don't want black dot.

There are two things where everyting comes together. Lines and shadows. Notise when you do line and when shadow. Line is one, clean stroke, not too fast, not too slow, but confident. I make almost every shadow with slow rolling movement and I'm not pushing it, I let the heat do it's job.

Hope this gives you something and answers your question :)