The most important part of piloting a ship is positioning, and that's 90% knowledge. Keep checking your tactical map so you know where the enemy ships are in relation to your own fleet, and figure out where you should be. Try piloting something mobile and sticking near something bulky and durable, so you can retreat behind it if you get too pressured and can flank enemy ships that engage it.
The Hammerhead makes a great learning ship, as it's decently fast and durable for a destroyer and its Accelerated Ammo Feeder system lets it rip other destroyers apart. It can even punch out some cruisers while AAF is active. Starting with the Apogee and doing the tutorial to pick up the free Hammerhead starts you out with that mobile ship and bulky durable ship combo I mentioned. Use the Apogee as an AI-piloted "fleet anchor", a durable gun platform that threatens a large area of space, and fly your Hammerhead as an escort ship to the Apogee. Position yourself between it and any flanking frigates or destroyers, and gang up with it to kill other cruisers 2v1.
On the more technical side, make sure you have Turn to Cursor turned on in the settings menu; it's hard to accurately turn your ship without it on. For most ships, you can turn autofire on for all the guns and focus on positioning yourself properly while timing missile launches and active vents.