I've never owned a stick burner, but I've read enough here and other places to see how they generally work.
For starters, you can definitely use charcoal to get the fire going. Lots of people do that. Then you can add logs to the fire to get your smoke and keep your heat going. Generally, you need a good amount of airflow to keep the wood burning. Smoldering wood gives off too much soot and other stuff that leads to dirty smoke, and will lend acrid flavors to the meat. What you're looking for is a steady stream of "blue" smoke coming out of the stack. It's going to take several dry runs of experimenting with how much air vs. how much wood to be using to get that, and maintain the proper temperature you want to cook at (If you can't stand burning wood just to burn wood, cook some pork butts to start. They're fine at a wide range of temperatures). The important part is a steady temperature, and every cooker has a different sweet spot that they will maintain temperature. A steady 260 is better than one that swings from 200 to 300 too often.
Once you have the temperature dialed in, do the toast or biscuit test. Get a loaf of cheap bread, or a couple cans of the cheapest biscuits, and put them on the grate. You'll need enough so that each piece of dough or bread is about 2" apart. Close the lid, and let it "bake" for about half an hour. That will tell you what part of your grill is hotter versus cooler. That's helpful to know if you want to cook multiple things where one can handle a higher temp.
Aaron Franklin and I think Bradley Robinson (@Chudsbbq on youtube) have some videos on fire management. Good luck in your new adventure, and ask plenty of questions.