I'm linking the strategy article by jesusin below that provides a nice in-depth guide to the cultural victory. jesusin was great Civ IV player who had a particular affinity for the culture game and achieving optimal culture victories. This article should give you a great foundation for success on any level. I used it when I first started going for CVs.
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/cultural-victory-on-the-higher-levels.298093/
I'd also add, and I believe jesusin discusses this somewhere in there, that basically a culture game will consist of two or three phases....expansion, research, culture. You are not really going to use the culture slider until all all your multipliers are in place. Then you rock out on culture.
Also, I don't think he talks much about leaders. Of course, you can win CV with any leader just like you can with any other VC, but there are a few leaders that work well for CVs, namely:
Gandhi (honestly just about any Philo leader works well, but Spiritual is a nice trait for to have for cheap temples)
Rams (Nice combo of Spiritual for cheap temples and Industrious for wonders, which include those unique religion wonders, i.e., Cathedrals)
Elizabeth ( Not Spiritual, but fantastic trait combo for culture - Philo for getting GAs and Financial for cottages)
So top culture traits are Philo, Financial, Spiritual and Industrious...the other traits are inconsequential other than their relative bonuses to general gameplay. So basically a leader with one or a combo of those 4 traits will be nice for CV. Philo and FIN being the strongest.
A few other interesting leaders are:
Pericles (note: Creative itself is actually pretty irrelevant for culture victory but here you have cheap theatres AND the unique Greek Odeon which also allows two artists. Plus, Peri is Philo)
Zara (traits are irrelevant but the Stele is interesting. I don't think I've actually tried Zara for CV but it would be interesting to see how the Stele would impact things. The +25% bonus over time will just get bigger and bigger)
Qin (Industrious always good for CV. Here though the Chinese unique building, the Pavilion, also has that +25% bonus to culture. That is quite a lot. Again, not sure I recall trying him for CV but would be interesting play. In Qin's case, a might actually try wonder whoring in the 3 L cities + Pavilion as opposed to just only building those typical marble wonders good for CV)
Lastly, just for perspective, since you haven't really played CV, in a typical game/map you are going to get tons of culture per turn in the later stages just from developed cottages and sliders. Massive amounts of culture. Point is that things like Creative trait are just a drop in the bucket compared to where the real culture comes from, which is why it is an insignificant trait for CV. But further, this applies to other things like just building any wonders for some culture. Really you want those specific wonders that directly boost culture victory success..think Sistine Chapel..and generally any of the wonders that produce GA points. (and..yeah..marble is very nice to have for CV)
Great Artists will be produced en masse for bombing cities. Save them though > do the math> and bomb cities as needed. Usually your main L city (one with Hermitage and usually your Bureau cap) serves as the gauge so to speak on the timing of your victory, but all 3 cities should complete L by almost the same turn.
Typically, research shuts off completely after Lib>Nationalism with maybe Printing Press being the last helpful tech for the boost to cottages.
edit: additional thoughts regarding diplo and combat...
diplo - Diplomacy is generally very important in CV..unless for whatever reason you are isolated for much of the game. If this is a weak aspect of your game, CV is actually a great time to improve your diplo skills. As a whole you want to avoid wars, especially in the latter stages when research is shut off and, depending on difficulty, the AIs will likely surpass you quite a lot in advanced military.
Combat - Again, combat and wars are generally avoided. However, what one might do in CV, if the opportunity is there, is conduct an early rush of some sort to nab some AI capitals. Generally, there caps will be well suite to one of the 3 L cities. For instance, take Rams, his war chariots could be of good use early to knock out a couple of nearby AIs and nab their caps at least. Otherwise, you will likely go most of the game with only a minimal army, mainly just MP. For one reason, you don't have time to build units and second you want to keep maintenance as low as possible to keep culture slider high..ideally 100%.
On a low level CV attempt, say Prince or below, I would definitely take out a couple of neighbors. Possibly simply using a warrior rush.