Charcoal pits!

So ive been playing VS for about a few days now and im absolutely loving it, im trying to get charcoal going so i can start making fire clay for a clay oven but i feel like the pits ive set up arent working. Ive surrounded them in packed dirt and followed all the steps but nothing is happening and there's no smoke coming up from the pile like it say in both the wiki and in game guide, any help would be great!