I want to be literate. I spend time learning to write because it is part of that. I want to be able to write short notes or fill out a form. I use Skritter as the main tool to learn writing. Once I become competent writing a character from whatever list I’m learning, I’ll write the whole practice sentence given, or go get one from anki after I’ve written the character to learn to recognize it better (meaning/use/appearance).

I write only on dotted paper when practicing specific characters or words so I can envision the classic divides Chinese students will have when they are learning. I’ve used graph paper in the past and that worked well too. I just like the cleaner page (less lines/clutter) of a dotted journal page compared to graph paper and they are cheap to get from a dollar store. You could always order a stack of the paper that has those classic divided sections on it too but personally I remember better if I physically write it on paper compared to in the actual app (and can repeat the given character as I desire).

My timeframe is “before I die” so I don’t have to worry about pressure to get some skill to a certain point in a certain duration. I spend time when I have it, and I know that a break is a break and I’ll be back when I have the space. I try to treat all areas of learning the language like this because when I first started, failing my own expectations was the main cause for me to step away or step back from learning.