Using lots of balled up paper works because it not only puts out a lot of heat very quickly but also gets the flame closer to the wood and the paper acts as a base of "coals" to help sustain the fire in the beginning.

A softer wood burns more quickly and can also help develop the base of coals more quickly. So use the soft woods to start the fire and switch to the dense woods (like oak) once it is going good and hot with a decent base of coals.

How you stack the wood also matters. You want the fire to draw air through the stacked logs so leave some air spaces. With split wood try to have the faces of the wood face each other with a small gap for the air to draw through. This usually allows the fire to sustain itself better.

Dry wood burns much much better than green wood. It's important to let the wood season and dry before you burn it. But you probably knew that <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

And one final tip. The best time to split next years wood is after the first good freeze. The green wood literally pops apart under the splitting maul once the moisture inside the wood is frozen. The old saying that wood warms ya twice is really true!