Read, read, read
I'm with Vossler on this one, too. As he puts it, “Read for pleasure, yes, but study what you read.” This is closely related to the mimicking habit mentioned above. Of course, not everything you enjoy reading will be applicable to the writing you're trying to sell. For example, I adore the novels of Martis Amis, but his pessimistic-comedic view of modern English life simply isn't relevant to my feature articles about Taiwan.
Read with a notebook close at hand, and not just to jot down new words (learned just the other day: muniment) and endearing phrases (recently I added “float your boat” to my palette; it's far more elegant than “yank your chain”). Reading will help you generate story ideas. Example: I've been reading about peak oil, and I'm starting to wonder what Taiwan is doing in the way of contingency planning.
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