I like to use a small whiteboard and practice writing a character once - slowly, while thinking about the radicals, other characters I might confuse it for, bits that are difficult for me to remember.
I don't like to write a character again and again unless it is for handwriting practise.
I use Pleco to look up other words that use the same radical and try to remember some bonus characters at the same time. I also use the Outlier dictionary to look up the history of the character and see if that will help me. If the character has been simplified or changed too much (and I can't see myself remembering it with the actual story), I try and visualize an image or create a memorable story that will help me to remember the character in my own way.
I don't match characters with English meanings whevever it is possible for me to remember it as part of a word or phrase in Chinese.
For example: the character 酸：太酸了，酸菜，心酸, 酸痛（I am familiar with these phrases and this is enough to give me an idea of the meaning) - so when I test myself later if I can write the character 酸，I will text it within the context of the above ie, I will create flashcards with the character 酸 missing from the above terms and I will test for being able to write 酸
As for the breaking down of the character. I am very familiar with the character 酒，but not so much with the character 酉, so I can break the 酸 character down in my head as alcohol without the water (三点水) - and perhaps visualize a kombucha scoby or a apple cider vinegar mother + 夋 (which I'm also not familiar with and which has too many components to remember easily), so I imagine it as a bear (hat, eyes slanted down, nose) wearing a stupid hat (think Yogi bear) who tried to steal a bottle of beer from a picnic but who stole a bottle of sour kombucha instead.
Is this ridiculous and a bit of a stretch? Yes.
But does the process of trying to do this help me to remember the character whether or not I come up with a story or not? Also yes.
As an added bonus, I then make a list (usually the first characters listed in the CHARS section of Pleco) of other characters containing 夋 that I am also familiar with such as
俊 - 英俊
峻 - 峻岭
唆 - 唆使
and I write those out while thinking about them and make sure that I have some kind of story/association for them as well
P.S. some of the stories/associations that I come up with are extremely weird or I really can't come up with anything complete, but I can do this very quickly now and when I go through the process, I end up remembering the character no matter how 'ugly' the method.
(more)
