It depends on where I am building the fire and what I am building it for.

Edit. OK, Northern Bush camping fire.

First of all. Make a place for the fire. This means clear ground if summer. No stuff on the ground to catch and start a forest fire.
It means a platform of green logs if winter time so that you have a raft to keep the fire from sinking into the snow.

Now I start by gathering dry dead sticks. If they are above the ground they are likely dry. Look for dead lower branches on trees too. You want everything from the size of your baby finger up to about the size of your wrist.
Everything nice and dry and dead. If it breaks with a snap instead of like a green stick it is likely dry enough to burn.
Sort it into 3 piles by size.
Last thing to gather is logs.

Then I gather a lot of small twigs. I like the little dead ones from the lower branches of a spruce tree the best.
When I have a hand full of those I try finding the dryest grasses, bark shreds and small fibery stuff I can.
Birch bark is real nice because it is very oily and burns real good. Just shred it up and stuff it into the center of the twig bundle.
Keep the grasses and shreddy bark a bit loose. Fire needs air to burn.
Add a bunch of the finger sized sticks to the outside of the bundle of twigs. Light the wad of tinder in the middle of the twigs.

Wave the bundle around a bit to fan the flames.
Set it down where you want the fire.

Start adding more small twigs and branches then some larger ones, then the ones wrist sized.
You want a jumbled pile of wood with the smallest pieces on the bottom and plenty of air gaps. The wrist sized pieces should be standing kind of like a teepee.
As the small stuff burns down the larger pieces witll flatten out.

You should be adding the largest pieces now if you want a camp fire.
This will be stuff the size of your arm.
At least 4 or 5 pieces.
they can be quite long.
You can lay them over the fire and let the fire burn through them, then just keep pushing the halves into the fire. careful not to crush and smother the fire by piling too much on it at once.
Your sticks need to be close enough to each other to use each other's heat to burn, yet have inouggh spave for good air supply.

If you want a fire for all night, now is the time to be adding even bigger sticks. you can eve throw on some freen wood if you want. the fire should be hot enough to dry and burn it by now.

(If you push your logs and sticks all together lengthways now the fire will burn along them and give you a fire you can stretch out beside.
If you built a lean to behind you it will reflect the fire heat onto your back like a baker oven.
This was the idea behind a Baker tent, which was a canvas copy of a northwoods lean-to.)