How to write pretty and easily recognizable characters?

Traditionally, a Tian-Zi notebook is used to help the student in getting used to the balance of Mandarin characters. When practising, I recommend first getting used to writing particular characters like heart, soil or moon, as these characters are often used to compose other characters which are more complex. By practising these thoroughly, you will gain an understanding of the basic structure of Chinese characters, how they are balanced, and in composing them with others, what we call the 'forms'. These 'forms' are often taught in schools in China and are general rules followed by almost all Chinese characters. They provide significant insights into how Chinese characters are formed and are a great help if you want to write more like a native. Examples include the top-bottom form and the left-right form, where another character with related meaning to the one at hand is added as a suffix. Another example would be a suffix added due to its similarity in sound to the particular character.