So what makes Chinese characters LOOK difficult?
First, Chinese is not alphabetic so the writing is not related to its phonetics. This feature of Chinese makes learners feel it is learning another separate language to learn Chinese characters.

Second, Chinese characters look so different from Western written language. Every character has strokes that look  so "randomly" attached to the character. To non-Chinese speakers, it seems that the strokes are not related to each other at all and it is so hard to learn one character after another, let alone to remember them.

The fact is, it is not easy to learn Chinese characters, but it is not impossible. First of all, there are ways in written Chinese. When you look a Chinese character, check the structure first. Basic structures of Chinese include left-right, up-down and inside-outside. The next step is check strokes. Basic strokes include 点(dot), 横(horizontal stroke), 竖(vertical stroke), 撇(upright to downleft stroke), 捺(upleft to downright stroke).

Once learners understand that Chinese characters LOOK reasonable, they will not feel so intimidated or hesitant to pick up a pen and practice.

Just pay attention to two things:
First, each stroke is NOT randomly put into a Chinese character. There is an order of strokes in each types of structure. Second, Chinese characters look "squarely" balanced. After writing a character, look at it -- if it looks like it is falling down or shaking, more practice or instruction will be needed. If you have to look at the character with a tilted head, more practice or instruction will be needed. If you feel very comfortable and balanced looking at the character, that is the one you want.