As we all know Heisig's method of learning a kanji uses Imaginative Memory which is simply using visualization, mental images. I've made big mistake before and didn't listen or understand what Heisig meant by it and simply remembered the stories to certain kanji. After lesson 11 I understood what how I should study and tried to apply this.
Now I'm at number 960 Kanji I think and wanted to ask how long does it take you to create a strong image in the mind (if you create them ) and how does it work for you. Some kanji work very well for me, those with good primitives like certain objects or characters that appear, some are quite abstract and I'm quite anxious to learn them because I fear I'm going to forget them easily - characters with primitives like 多, 全. Some of problematic primitives like see 見 I replaced with Huge Eyeball, which is pretty fun I guess and stick very well in memory

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I forgot to write that I listen to Heisig's comment on this topic from lesson 11. I make up my own sotry, set clock for 4 minutes, create image with the right elements. After that I write my story out in the book, juxtapose the elements, like write the writing of the element on the object in mind It may sound strange but is very simple in reality. After that I'm done and go to another character.

I had thought on answering to this post a long time ago, but didn't get to it until now. Sorry.

I take an average of 10-15 minutes to learn a new kanji. I first look it up in Heisig's book, and read the story there if there is one. Then I read the keyword by itself and think on what first comes to my mind when I read/hear that keyword. I want my story to have something to do with that. Then I read the 20 best rated stories in koohii, and favorite those I like. Then I read the favorites again and compare them, and then I unfavorite the ones that are not as good. Sometimes Heisig's story is perfect for me (5% of the time), sometimes someone else's story is perfect for me (30% of the time), sometimes others' stories give me very good hints to write my own story (40% of the time) and sometimes I feel really inspired and create my own story, or have to create my own story anyways because I use special names for primitives that nobody else uses (25% of time). Sometimes an image pops into my mind and I search the Internet to find it and add it to my kanji entry in Anki, but I don't spend over 5 minutes looking for the image, if I can't find it, I can't. It's important for me to have the story well-worded and a mental image stuck in my mind with the primitive elements and the keyword, and that the keyword triggers that image (the keyword should always be the most important part in the story).

This process is veeeery slow, I know, but because I make the effort of making up my own stories when others' don't strike my mind enough, I have a very good retention rate (I only fail like 1 Kanji every 50 in reviews).

Sometimes the play-on-words are good enough for you not to remember an image, for example, you said you had trouble with kanji with 全. I remember for 栓 someone wrote "to plug the hole in the dam, use the whole damn tree" which is a very neat play-on-words that I always remember, so I don't use mental imagery there. However good puns and play-on-words are sometimes difficult to come by, so in those cases I stick to mental imagery.

For me it depends entirely on the keyword and the primitives. For kanji with abstract keywords and primitives that don't fit well together story wise can take me roughly 15 minutes. On ones that have simple keywords and good primitives it would only take like 3 minutes.

Thanks for replies. The thread was with no replies for many days, so I started to think that I asked wrong question or something completely unimportant that no one wants to write about.

What I noticed was the phenomenon of the fastest learners of kanji that broke records on this site, completing RTK in only a few days. I made a very simple calculation - some record breakers learned somewhere like 100+ Kanji a day, which with Heisigs note that the minimum of 5 minutes is essential should take, let's say 600 minutes/60 = 10 hours of constant study.

I honestly don't believe that any person would last in studying for few days in such a routine. They simply must have rushed the process very hard. As Heisig writes in Lesson 21 skipping over stories too quickly can only lead to the famous frustration and relearning and spending up to five minutes on each characters is very recommended.
So to sum it up once again I'm going to listen to his words, study in a slower pace and finish the book in a next few months, saving myself any problems in a future reviews.

I sort of f-ed things up for myself by relying more on story itself instead of mental image. Initially, it wasn't big deal, but eventually, as i learned more kanji (i am at 500 now), there are cases where my story contains more keywords then primitives and i can't tell which are primitives and which are just fluff text.

I guess that could be avoided with correctly constructed images. I have 80% on young cards as a result... not ideal, I think.

I had the same problem with first 300 characters. I simply memorised the plots of the stories, some of the characters had some kind of mental image, probably because of Heisig's hints of imagining something or because of how natural process visualisation is. I think it was caused by not really clear explanation of technique we should use at the beginning of the book, or because I'm not native English speaker and I simply didn't understand what Heisig wanted to say

But now when I'm heading towards clearing 50% of the book, there are no problems when you justaxpose the elements in the image making them the most important because they are the part of kanji itself.
The only problem I have is having this blank .. nothingness when I see the keyword. I fail the card and realise that I remember the story and image very well but the connection of keyword with both is not that good. By the next few revisions the conection is fixed.

i had the same problem with not fully using images in my first go through the book (I only got to like 500 before uni started up again and it went on the back burner).

this time around, I'm up to 1850 that I remember no problem... but i take a long time with the kanji... about 20 minutes each with story, dictionary, any supplementary research (ahem、cough桂 cough梓). I have been having a ton of fun with the stories. first of all, I don't always use the kanji meaning of a primitve, sometimes I find it easier to split it up into its elements. actually, most of the time, unless the kanji had a story that can continue on into the next story of the kanji containing it. ex: the story for 搬 is the story for 般 plus a little bit more.

also, i have found that only using nouns for primitives is the way to go! there are too many easily forgettable keywords that are just too hard to remember for me over a long time. I like to connect famous characters to primitives, as it usually works well.

ex.
人偏: Mr. T (whoever thought of this deserves a medal lol)
糸偏: Spiderman
手偏： Saladfingers
衣偏：　John Snow (Game of Thrones guy who wears a black cloak of significance)


stuff like that makes kanji a woooooorld easier for me. it does take a while to figure out what works though. it not a race, and I'm happy going at 10-30 kanji a day (30 kanji is a loooooooooooong day), because I'm happy with the results.

nice to see that there are others as well who need a long time in this
I just hit my 1500 kanji mark Ive been on it for 10months now and I hope to remember at least 80% of all the kanji correctly by the end of the year

I must admit im not putting as much effort into building my stories as some of you do, but im really doing it only parttime. 20 kanjis a day, and once ive done 500 kanjis that way, im stopping and start repeating them. When ive finished repeating that 500 block, im repeating all the old kanjis as well. Then im heading on. Im also having breaks from learning new kanji when Im focussing more on my japanese grammar and vocabulary. Thats also part of the reason it took me so long to get where i am now.


Im very pleased with my results so far, although I must say that there are some kanjis which give me a really hard time. Maybe im gonna look out for some stories here.
I really wonder what it will be like when ive reached my goal. Id wish there were some language learner editions of manga/novels whatever, which contain only the "basic" 2200 kanji im learning now. Because as we all know, we get the best effects once we can apply what weve learned, and its really cool to read a kanji once you know it ^^
Anyone knows of such adapted textbooks?

I think back when I went through RTK I spent like 30 seconds one each kanji; look at the components, make a story, close your eyes and visualize and move on. I usually did this before going to bed or talking a walk, as to not review right after.