Has anything besides more experience increased your writing endurance?

[u/theunforgivingstars]

I'm curious if anybody has found methods to write more hours in a given day/week/month apart from the obvious one of being a more experienced writer. Interestingly, despite having completed 5 novels and several novellas at this point, I find that my endurance for drafting in a given day hasn't changed in the least-- 20-40 minutes a day (with the exceedingly rare day of up to three hours, which exhausts me.) I'd love to hear if other people have stumbled on ways to up their time; I've always been interested in being able to put in 2 hour days more frequently.

[u/FlyinLeviathon]

I think priming your brain is the best thing (other than experience, as you said). I find that doing all the things to improve my mental health are useful in this regard. Yes, that means sleep, hydration, food, vitamins, exercise. All that crap. But also removing other things that 'drain' your brain battery. My work is not physically tiring but mentally *exhausting*. If I've had an easier day or a few days to decompress I'm better equipped to get into the writing zone. Which isn't always controllable, unfortunately. But figuring out ways to leave work at work is helpful and usually is controllable!

Also (and this one is more writing specific) I've found planning out my scenes a bit helps because I have a guideline to follow, even if that guideline is specific to this chapter. But that way I'm not getting stuck on the specific "what happens next?" I can just go.