I couple things I find useful:

* Around here, wood is always wet. Use big pieces as structure. Use your small starter fire to help dry out the big pieces. By the time your're ready for big pieces they are drier for having been exposed to your small fire.

* Building directly on the ground surface is not an impediment vs a fireplace grill; I turn my grill upside down in my fireplace so that there's only a cm or two of space under the fire.

* I try to keep the flames from going straight up. I figure that the longer I keep them around, the more warmth I receive. So, I usually build the structure like a maze where the flames need to wend up through and around multiple pieces of wood.