I've done calligraphy now for about 8 years or so, on and off. It's good for relaxing and sort of getting comfy with the characters, but I never really found it helped me remember them any better. (But I can make some smashing squiggles that look really artsy!)
I'm going back to the writing woodshed myself, Zgarabas. I'm using an ALC book called 上級学習者のための日本語読解ワークブック by ALC. (ISBN: 978-4-7574-1929-2). It's aimed primarily at reading comprehension, but there's also a lot of "Write 200字 on what this essay is about" kind of things in it, and that's been helpful for me at remembering how to physically write stuff out. It's also been helpful for me to fix a lot of my bad 読解 habits, too. But the writing stuff has been handy as well. It may not be exactly what you need, but I figured I'd mention it.
http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4757419295/
The only thing is that you need someone (like a tutor or a teacher) who also has the book who can go over your short essays.
They also make a 中級 level if you're feeling totally overwhelmed: (check it out at the local Maruzen or Kino first?)
http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4757416229/
This looks interesting, it's aimed at teaching foreign students how to write 論文 properly. Even if it doesn't fit, some of the other recommended books might lead you on the right path:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4874241271/
I'm doing Core10k, even though I know about 90% of it, just to make sure I haven't missed stuff. (There's some stuff I missed, but it's kind of fun to go through old stuff and nail it down again.)
One thing you could do with any of the Core decks, since pen-and-paper writing is really important to you, is to take the kana reading field of Core2/6/10k, for example, turn that into a card called "Production2", and use that as the front, and your answer would be to write the word in kanji, either with a pen or just air-draw it with your finger.
I did that for a while a few years ago, and it was really useful until I stopped, then I forgot everything. It's like a muscle. If you don't use it regularly, it atrophies.
But it's also excruciatingly boring as far as practice goes. Add some funny pictures or something, so you don't go nuts. I would do that maybe with something small and easy, like Core2k, just to get into the habit of it, and then just write a lot with a pen and some 原稿用紙. Maybe do Core6k if you really feel like you need it.
Or keep a diary in Japanese. The only downside to that is that you wind up plateauing again, because you wind up talking about the same kinds of stuff. (Unless you keep a diary of words you want to remember or something?)
I'm going back to the writing woodshed myself, Zgarabas. I'm using an ALC book called 上級学習者のための日本語読解ワークブック by ALC. (ISBN: 978-4-7574-1929-2). It's aimed primarily at reading comprehension, but there's also a lot of "Write 200字 on what this essay is about" kind of things in it, and that's been helpful for me at remembering how to physically write stuff out. It's also been helpful for me to fix a lot of my bad 読解 habits, too. But the writing stuff has been handy as well. It may not be exactly what you need, but I figured I'd mention it.
http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4757419295/
The only thing is that you need someone (like a tutor or a teacher) who also has the book who can go over your short essays.
They also make a 中級 level if you're feeling totally overwhelmed: (check it out at the local Maruzen or Kino first?)
http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4757416229/
This looks interesting, it's aimed at teaching foreign students how to write 論文 properly. Even if it doesn't fit, some of the other recommended books might lead you on the right path:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4874241271/
I'm doing Core10k, even though I know about 90% of it, just to make sure I haven't missed stuff. (There's some stuff I missed, but it's kind of fun to go through old stuff and nail it down again.)
One thing you could do with any of the Core decks, since pen-and-paper writing is really important to you, is to take the kana reading field of Core2/6/10k, for example, turn that into a card called "Production2", and use that as the front, and your answer would be to write the word in kanji, either with a pen or just air-draw it with your finger.
I did that for a while a few years ago, and it was really useful until I stopped, then I forgot everything. It's like a muscle. If you don't use it regularly, it atrophies.
But it's also excruciatingly boring as far as practice goes. Add some funny pictures or something, so you don't go nuts. I would do that maybe with something small and easy, like Core2k, just to get into the habit of it, and then just write a lot with a pen and some 原稿用紙. Maybe do Core6k if you really feel like you need it.
Or keep a diary in Japanese. The only downside to that is that you wind up plateauing again, because you wind up talking about the same kinds of stuff. (Unless you keep a diary of words you want to remember or something?)