Chinese characters or Kanji (漢字) sometimes consist of just a few strokes, sometimes many, but they are always written according to a set stroke order. Listed below are some principles that will be of assistance with regard to priority in the order of strokes.
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Top to botton
Left to right
When two or more strokes cross, horizontal strokes usually precede perpendicular ones
Sometimes perpendicular strokes precede horizontal ones
Center first, then left and right
Perpendicular line running through center written last
Right-to-left diagonal stroke precedes left-to-right
While the above may all seem rather complicated, the student might find solace in the fact that the writing system has been simplied to a considerable extent compared with the past, and has been mastered by many thousands of students having neither native speaker competence in Japanese nor prior background knowledge of the Chinese script. Remember than practice makes the master. がんばって!