I always orient my nocks and fletching in one particular way. I want the points where the grain feathers out of the shaft to be pointing forward on the top side of the arrow when it's made up. The edge grain of the shaft will be against the bow when it's nocked.

Reasoning behind that is, if the arrow breaks on release,it will likely breakalong the grain. With the forward-facing points of the grain on the TOP side, the tail end of the arrow will likely be forced UP, and away from my forearm. If they were on the bottom, then it could be forced down and into my arm. And I don't even like the thought of that![:-]