I don't think there's a lot of magic ... just practice. But it does help to choose the right kinds of wood - for both the drill and the "target" that you are boring into. Look around for advice on the wood ... I'm rusty but seem to recall that the drill has to be pretty hard and dry.

Watch "Castaway" with Tom Hanks again. His efforts with a hand drill were not successful. But sliding forwards and backwards with a blunt stick did work better. A big part of the success was that the sliding motion built up a small pile of very dry "fluff" from the wood fibers in the target board. It's the fluff that actually catches fire.

I think it depends a lot on your setup, type of wood available, humidity and dampness of the wood etc.

Pete2