I've been really researching, and apparently people say that you should create your own stories, and use someone else's stories as a last result. Can I get opinions and pros/cons of both?

My initial (yet uneducated thoughts): It's temping to use the stories here because they're pretty good.. but apparently using my own stories builds better connection based on what I've heard? Be interested to hear from someone who used only user submitted stories for learning. But yet making my own stories that are applicable sounds daunting... for instance, for 七, I don't know how I would have made my own story for that (lucky #7, off the hook?), but the user submitted one I'm using is gorgeous (This kanji is our good old seven, turned upside down.) and I definitely will remember that... I also learned Hiragana with mnemonics that I didn't necessarily create either... so....thoughts?

Me again

My method is to keep the RevTK page open while I'm making my stories, so for each kanji, unless I can instantly think of an extremely memorable story, or the story is plain obvious, I read through the community stories first. I think it's fine to use someone else's story, so long as you rephrase it when you write it, and it definitely rings with you.

For primitives like 七 I tend to make the story only as a formality, since I learn them by sheer usage anyway.

An interesting fact worth considering: I've found many times before that even though I have written my own stories for a card, certain other stories which I read on this site have stuck with me better than my own, and in some cases I have had to switch them.

Now for the testimony someone who uses premade stories...

I'm having a hard time imagining people only using submitted stories, since it sounds too much like a mnemonic training, which isn't really what Heisig is about imo. But I guess it's possible. I'd like to hear how is the overall retention after a year or so then.

With a little practice, you'll see that what matters is if the story clicks. Some submitted stories are great and/or really speak to you, but most don't, and really don't help you to remember the character at all. Better to devise your own one then. About half of my stories are from other users.

I have seen posts of people on threads related to finishing RTK with immense speed who say they recommend using premade stories for this purpose, to save time and conserve effort. I think that's just about the only scenario in which it's a viable option...

Working on your own stories helps for in the future when you needa use mnemonics, particularly with vocab.