New kid :p looking for animating tips

hey im pretty new, im only 14 and i have had flash mx 2004 for a while and made some pretty rubbish cartoons :bu:

i like to make stickman cartoons normally fighting or star wars lightsaber fights are my fav :stuck_out_tongue:

the thing is that they all seem really bad… lol i run them at 18fps because i think it seems to run smoothly. But i dont really know how to make it alot easier. i make everything happen on 1 layer (which i know is daft) so any tips or help would be nice :slight_smile: