Remembering the Kanji for advanced level

Hello,

I have a question about the book "Remembering the Kanji". I know that many people have something against it, because it only teaches you the meaning of Kanjis at first.

Normally, the book is aiming at beginners, but I am already at JLPT N2 level, so already know around 1000 Kanji (more or less). However, my problem is that I can read many Kanjis but have often a hard time writing them (I know the same problem many Japanese facing after the rise of computers and smartphones). However, I would also like to be able to write them by hand and I think if I would remember them by their parts, I could perhaps write them much easier. Also I need a good start on the next 1000 Kanjis.

Do you think the book makes sense for me to learn the new Kanji and also remember the different parts of a Kanji or do you think it could cause mess up my knowledge somehow?

Can you write this all?
http://happylilac.net/syogaku.html

This may be the most difficult even as a Japanese.
http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/otonarisoku/imgs/9/a/9a266e02.jpg
https://ja.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=%E7%94%9F&oldid=953257

でも、実際に文章を手書きする機会は日本人でも既に相当減って来ていますよ。(学生は除きます。)
日本人(18歳以上)の中では、ある程度難しい漢字の読み書きも出来る事は当たり前なので、
外国人の場合は仕事で使うのでなければ、そこまで気にしなくとも良いと思います。

常用漢字のレベルに関しては、新聞(全国紙)や行政のサイトが参考になるでしょう。
http://www.hokurikunews.com/links/
行政のサイトや公文書では細かい指針を作り、明確な基準を守る様に徹底していますが、
これは限定的な制限に過ぎず、また学校で習うものとも実際には少しずれていたりもします。
http://www1.g-reiki.net/city.kobe/reiki_honbun/k302RG00001494.html
ネット上はこの逆で、以前は漢字を使わなかった難しい漢字を使う現象も良く見られます。
http://bunsyou.net/kouza1/15kanji1.html

こちらは主に著作権が切れた文学作品を誰でもネット上で読める様にしたサイトで、
日本の学校で使っている「国語」の教科書に収録されている有名な作品も多数有ります。
http://www.aozora.gr.jp/
一部の作品には「ふりがな」も振って有るので、漢字の勉強になるかもしれません。
戦前の作品は難しいかもしれませんが、理解出来る漢字が増えれば逆に楽しくなるでしょう。

(There are no difficult kanji used here, how much did you understand?)

I can read it and understand it, but like I said I would also like to be able to write most kanji by hand. I know that it is not so important in the digital age, since you never really have to write much by hand, but I am living now already 8 years in Japan, my wife is Japanese and her mother is is even a teacher of handwriting Kanji, so there is also the expectation that I can write by hand to a certain degree.

I know the basics of writing and the basic rules about the stroke order, but when writing, I sometimes just cannot recall certain parts of the Kanji. Actually even my wife is struggling with some harder ones.
So I think learning some stories how to remmeber the single parts of a Kanji can help me getting better in this regard.

I found this book fantastic for writing. A few years ago now I was at the N2 level and used this book as a supplement for studying N1 material. I overcame my 'fear' of kanji, and it improved not only my writing but my reading ability as well.

However, unless I made a conscious effort to write daily (i.e. diary, stories, thoughts, reports, etc), over time I found I forgot how to write many kanji. This is not a reflection of the book though, rather the same for anything - if you don't use what you learn, you can easily forget it. My writing was pretty good for about six months or so, but then I began to not write so much and therefore slowly forget how to write many kanji.

I don't think there is any issue with the book 'messing up' your current level or study habits at all, but if you really want to remember how to to write kanji, I think you need to incorporate writing into your daily lifestyle and stick to it like glue.

Yeah I totally agree with Cadogan, just keep practicing. You gotta use your hand to write kanjis to be able to remember and write them by hand. My husband, has lived in Japan for a little over 10 years now, started having trouble writing kanjis by hand, but he's a computer guy and he never gets any chance to write not just kanjis but any Japanese by hand, so now he's having trouble writing hira/kana and reading kanjis. You'll forget what you don't use, but you'll remember (at least some) if you use it. So just keep practicing! I used to study English vocab with a method of 7 words a day. So if you want to add one new word, then you have to opt out the oldest word you added to the list. Do I make sense?? That method really worked for me, and I put the paper up on the bathroom wall haha

So for example:
1st day: 朝露 (new word)
2nd day: 朝露, 玉露 (new word)
3rd day: 朝露, 玉露, 玉の輿 (new word)
.
.
.
7th day: 朝露, 玉露, 玉の輿, . . ., 満期 (new word) 7 words in total
8th day: 玉露, 玉の輿, . . ., 満期, 会員制 (new word) 7 words in total
9th day: 玉の輿, . . ., 満期, 会員制, 明細 ( new word) 7 words in total

So you keep adding a new word everyday but you lose the oldest word on the list after studying it for 7 days. It doesn't take much of your time in the day, so it shouldn't be that hard compared to writing a whole journal or story on your own. Well anyways, you can use the book you mentioned, or you can ask your wife to come up with the Word of the Day. I just made that list above from the kanjis I saw on the paper lying around the house haha If you're still studying for N1, then I suggest you use any kind of textbooks for it, but just keep practicing! お姑さんをぎゃふんと言わせてみてっ(*｀∧´)／笑

Specially to your question how to learn and remember how to write kanjis, I agree with previous posters that writing makes you remember how to write. I personally have not used the book you mentioned although I always thought I should give it a try.
What I use for writing is an app/webpage called skritter. You can study writing, reading and definitions together or only one/two of these skills. It works with spaced repetition and has a lot of vocabulary lists from books already available. The downside of the app is its monthly costs.
But have a look at it if this is something that might work for you.
If you use a smartphone you can write with a stylus, so it feels like real writing.

I really like the Bojinsha Kanji series for writing, like basic Kanji, intermediate Kanji and so on. It shows the stroke order and stroke direction.

Depends how you are learning kanji. If you are just looking at them, then that will not help much. I am certainly no expert, but when I learn I trace out every kanji - I ignore stroke order. That helps reinforce the look and components of each one.

Even a few years ago when I first started I used to write them out and after switching around to other things even a couple of years later copying out kanji was much easier because head/hand memory recalled enough to make the appropriate components.

tl;dr start writing the kanji as you learn them.

if you know the meaning of some kanjis you might also go some different way:
* try to find a meaning for each compound of a kanji or for a combination of kanji and then make a story for it.

for example:
朝
it was 10 and the sun came, still 10, but the moon was also to be seen (on the right side) = this can be only in the "morning"

so if you wanna write now "asa", you remember this story and paint it compound by compound.
it is not important to have even real, correct meaning for each compound or kanji, you can even make them up.

this might not work for anyone, but for me it helps, cause a story with small parts (of with time well known compounds) is easier to remember than every single stroke.

more concrete: it was 10 (十) and the sun (日) came, still 10 (十), but the moon (月) was also to be seen (on the right side) = 朝

for compounds that dont have a "real" meaning, i use mostly "monsters", e.g. the "long haired monster", "the monster with the hole in the stomache", "the monster with the two hairs"
cause it is easy to build up a story with monsters :-)

Glimpigumpi has mastered one way how some Chinese characters (Kanji) were made up. According to one dictionary, the two 十s represent grass. Together with the sun (日), the left part of the Kanji 朝means the sun is rising above the grass. Adding the right part : moon (月), the entire word 朝 means the sun is rising above the grass while the moon is still there. Have fun.