Why won't my firewood burn properly?

Remember it takes heat, fuel and oxygen to burn. So while your wood is dry on the outside it may be wet on the inside. As the fire gets going and heating up this would cause the wood to start drying out thus causing steam which in turn will put out the fire. Once you get a good bed of coals using dry good wood then you can place your problem wood in the top of that with a piece of good wood and it will go. On one hand slightly damp wood will burn much slower and prolong the life of the fire. But wet wood just don't burn without heat, and a lot of it.