Quote:1) Illuminate your link images. That is make them as
bright and as colourful as you possibly can. In fact you don’t
even have to use the correct colours. A pink elephant, or an
orange mountain, are both very memorable images indeed.
2) Exaggerate the proportions of your link images.
That is try to make them as large as you can. The bigger the
better!
3 ) Sensation must be included. Attempt to
incorporate as many of your senses as you can into your links
– sight, sound, smell, touch, and even taste if at all possible.
Remember that the more senses that your link images
incorporate, the greater an imprint will be left on your memory.
4) Strangeness is memorable. Try to make your link
images as amusing as you are able. The more strange or
absurd an image is, the more easily it is recalled.
5) Numbers leave an impression. One Gorilla running
down the High street leaves an impression in the memory. An
army of Gorillas filling every available space leaves a much
greater impression.
6 ) Movement must be incorporated wherever
possible. A car parked unobtrusively by the roadside is not
particularly memorable. A fleet of cars screeching around the
corner does cannot fail to leave a long lasting impression.

The book is Introducing Mnemonics by Mark D'Arcy. It's short and practical, like a manual.

very good tips. This should be required reading for anyone on this site! I haven't been using numbers; I will give it a go!! thank you.

Thank you for this post. I think I am going to print this list and tape it beside my monitor.

Anyone using these to create or enliven stories?

The number idea seems strong, but my stories suck

Here are numbers mnemonics ideas I got when I was googling how to memorize an entire menu (just got hired recently yay...). Here is the first 10.

Quote:1. Tree (one bark)

2. Switch (two possibilities, on or off)

3. Tripod (or three-legged stool)

4. Car (four doors, wheels, seats, etc.)

5. Glove (five fingers)

6. Gun (revolver)

7. Dice (lucky sevens)

8. Ice Skates (or skating ring, think figure eights)

9. Cat (nine lives)

10. Bowling (ten pins)

http://www.girlsaskguys.com/other/q84547...n=question

kapalama, these tips are limited to enlivening stories. Admittedly, Introducing Mnemonics is mainly about domains where you can limit yourself to concrete nouns, whereas the greatest difficulty with kanji stories is working with the abstract keywords. Using these tips, it shouldn't take much effort to link, say, gorilla with kettle + house + ground, but you still have to work when it comes to something like perseverance = heart + direction + words. The only advice I can give is to use prototypes to represent categories (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototype_theory), and use words when it seems easier.