At first, Chinese characters might seem difficult because they are not quite like an alphabet. The beginner looks at a sheet of characters, then tries to attack the problem with brute-force memorization. That is why characters are often memorized with effort alone. Characters become easier when seen as a skill, one of writing and recognition, rather than just a list of characters. For the beginner, the goal is not to memorize many at once. Instead, try to get into the habit of looking at the character parts, writing the character carefully, and checking your memory when it is time. Then it becomes easier to memorize a character, even if it is a hard one.
The best way to begin character study is to slow down. Start by looking at how a character is built, instead of looking at it as a whole thing. Notice the different parts of the character, like the parts that are at the top, bottom, left, or right side. A common problem with beginners is that they see all characters with an outline in their mind, and so a character looks like many other characters. Try looking at a character and naming what you see in plain language. Perhaps you can identify a box shape, a slanted line, or something you saw in a previous lesson, even just a part you recognize. Now write a character a few times, while thinking about stroke order and not rushing. Writing the character also helps you remember the character more. When you write, your hands and eyes work together, and repetition makes the difference of different characters clearer.
Many beginners also make the mistake of copying the same character ten times over, while looking at the model the whole time. This can make you think that you are practicing, but there is very little that you remember. Your hand keeps writing, but your brain does not remember. One improvement is to practice in short intervals. Look at a character closely, write it once while looking at the model, then hide it and write it from memory. If you make a mistake, you can look and see exactly where you went wrong. Fix the one detail that you got wrong before trying again. Beginners also have the habit of learning a character like an art piece, without any sound or word that it can represent. The best method for memorizing a character is to connect it with a sound and a word. If you learn the character for “water,” say the sound, write it down, and put it in a word you know. Then, the character is part of language, and it can help you remember.
An excellent fifteen-minute practice for characters goes something like this: Spend five minutes studying two or three new characters, not ten. Look at the characters carefully. Notice the parts of each character. Write the characters for just a few minutes each, without thinking about other things. Use the next five minutes testing your memory, character by character, fixing your mistakes as you go, instead of looking over the answers at the end. Then use the last few minutes to read these characters as short words or example sentences. In this way, you can practice characters easily and regularly, while still making progress, and not get stuck into the idea of “more is better,” a problem many beginners face.
If you find that a character is not remembered, do not think that you are bad at character memorization. It might be that you studied it in a long session before, or just looked at it without writing. When you forget which character is which often, try comparing characters side by side, to notice the difference, instead of repeating the same character over and over again. When you do not feel good when you write, maybe you should just read and recognize a character one day, then write one day later. If your memory goes blank, try a few fewer characters until you are sure you will memorize them. Memorizing characters will not go far with too much effort and too much forgetting, but with a little bit of practice and contrast, a small correction goes far.
Chinese characters might seem difficult because of how to memorize them. If a beginner stops trying to learn like art, and learns as a part of language with sound and meaning, the character becomes easier to memorize. If you spend just a few minutes studying a character with care, it is better to do so for a long time without focusing on details. Then, memorizing the same character will feel different. You do not see the sheet of characters as difficult, but as the same parts you saw before, and now the next round of character study goes back to the same place you left off.