No two writers work exactly the same way, but there are certain things that any writer must do to be successful.
Here is another of them:

Read widely.
The most important thing a writer can do, aside from writing, is reading. Books are the memory of the human race. Thanks to our invention of writing, you can share the thoughts of the greatest minds that ever lived.
Not that you should restrict yourself to someone else's idea of what the Great Books are. Read what you enjoy. But make certain that you don't confine yourself to one narrow type of book. Read as widely as you can. Fiction, history, biographies, travel tales...read everything and anything that interests you. Your imagination will be enriched. Your curiosity will be excited. Your knowledge will grow.
Once you've read a book and particularly enjoyed it, go back and read it again. This time, though, try to discover how the author tackled the problems of telling his or her story. Whether the work is fiction or fact, the author had to make hundreds of choices about constructing that story. Read carefully and see where you might have made a different choice, emphasized a different facet of the tale, shaded things a bit brighter or darker, moved a segment closer to the beginning or farther back toward the end.
You can learn a lot by reading, and then analyzing what you've read.
Reading widely (and deeply) will help you to learn how to write well. But don't fall into the trap of trying to imitate something you've read! Speak with your own voice, tell your own tales. Aping work that you admire will almost always produce second-rate work. You don't to be a reflection; you want to shine with your own light.