So this is a three part question:

At first when I began doing Heisig, my cards (the old fashioned kind) would have the kanji AND the story on one side, and then the keyword on the other. It seemed that you would need to remember the stories and the character based on a keyword, to remember them both. But Heisig suggests that you keep the story along with the keyword. It seems like this is kind of giving the answer away, but I think I know why he suggests that. Before I say my opinion, I wanted to hear what other people think about on is why you should review Keyword+story=>kanji rather than Keyword=>Kanji+story. In other words, why you don't need to memorize the stories themselves.

On a similar note, when during the review process (with an SRS) should you add a story to a certain card? Obviously, you don't need to add it to every card, but only to the ones that you have trouble with. Do you think after one failure? Two failures? What about with an older card? Would it be better to add the stories as soon as you review the card, or is it better to wait until after your reviews for the day are finished (i.e. mark the card and move on)? Any opinions on the best method? I'm using Anki, btw.

Finally, regarding stories, what makes a good story? Sometimes, i think with the stories I make, I just try to pack all the elements (primitives and keyword) together a way come up with an image that links all the elements of the kanji together-more of an image or a concept than a story. I think i may be trying to shortcut the story making process too much, but I can't really figure out what exactly it is that makes my stories that don't work differ from the really good stories on this website that do. Obviously, the only test of a good story is whether it helps to remember the kanji or not, but I think that good stories probably have something in common. What is that exactly?

Thanks for the help!
Benzhi

I've never had stories on the question side of the card. Seems too easy and error prone.. When I have to write a kanji in the wild, I will probably not be able to remember the story and thus won't be able to write it correctly (which is the most important part of heisig imo). I get 80-90% retention without it, so I don't really see the point of adding it anyway. I would also like to point out that Heisig tells you to have the story IF you need it and UPSIDE DOWN. One shouldn't look at it every time even by his recommendation.

As for best types of stories, I usually do you like you try to make a good image which includes all the primitives. If it's too hard, I have to rely on some catchy one-phrase mnemonic, but I find that much harder. I guess the important part is to make every keyword into a very clear concept in your images so you don't worry which one it is you're trying to remember.

Take a look at the stories with high stars, those are the good stories. Not saying that you should simply copy the highest-stared story for all the kanji, but looking at them is a good way to see what makes stories good, the happy medium between conciseness and detail, between familiarity and outrageousness etc.

Heisig recommended putting the story on the keyword side upside down. Meaning, you should not see it automatically, but when the keyword itself failed you.

In the age of electronic flashcards, that's equivalent of putting the story in invisotext and showing up with the keyword. Not a big deal if you think about it. If you use the story to help, and you're using Anki, then say you got the card barely correct (a 2 in anki).

The story helps you write the kanji, the keyword helps you remember the story for the kanji. So long as you're getting the kanji written correctly, you are making progress.

As for adding stories. When you notice you're missing a kanji often, or you missed a kanji that was in a long delay box, maybe you should think of adding a story. Yeah, not all kanji need a story added, as the initial whatever probably worked.

"invisotext" do you mean, like make it the same color as the background, and then highlight it when necessary? Or is there some mouse-over type plugin that you're using?

Also, to follow up the question, is there ever a situation where you'd just add the primitives to a card, and not the story? Or, where you'd have the primitives listed separate from the story?