Hi guys!
How do you really associate a sometimes rather long mnemonic story with a character?
I cannot seem to be able to do this.
Many component names don’t make much sense, but the mnemonic stories don’t stick at all. Most of the characters that I remember have been learned from another course.
I am getting more frustrated and angry each day, when doing reviews.
Hey there! I understand your point, sometimes mnemonics are rather convoluted and can be tricky to visualize. Although the majority are quite ok! Maybe 75-80% or so I find usable as is.
I personally started modifying mnemonics that I find hard to remember. Sometimes by changing the story, sometimes the character (pinyin initial), sometimes by replacing components with characters I learned before. It takes a bit more time but helps me remember more later.
Also I use image generation AI, and for the tool I’m using to handle the prompts I usually have to tweak them. Things like anthropomorphic fingers are yet not achievable by that AI model for instance 
I think it’s important to recognize that the mnemonics you make yourself with your own personal memories and connections will almost always beat the standardized content 
But it will come at the cost of spending time on it, so I still find tools like HH to be worth it for the sake of organization and inspiration.
I personally find that writing with pen and paper has a huge impact on my long-term retention. If you haven’t already added physical pen and paper to your routine I’d highly reccomend it for character retention. I usually will write the hanzi, pinyin, and meaning until I feel satisfied and then move onto the next one. You could certainly take it a step further and write out the mnemonic as well. Will be a bit time confusing but it will certainly stick.
Good luck and keep it up!
It’s worth pointing out that you should take at least a good 30 seconds to 1 minute if not longer (5 minutes is probably way too long) to sit in your imagination, creating the mnemonic in your mind and really seeing the details of the characters and location and whatever ridiculous thing they’re getting up to. The weirder it is, and if you can spend 30 to 60 seconds really sitting with the scene in your mind, the more likely it is to be sticky and you’ll be able to recall it when you need it.
The longer you spend at the beginning to create these visual memories (aka the mnemonics for the sounds, components, and characters), the better you’ll be able to remember and spend less time later.