In my opinion, one of the best ways to remember new characters is to make up little stories, mnemonics or mental pictures. This is easier if you know what each component part means on its own, and there are books that come with some helpful stories (check out Tuttle's Learning Chinese Characters). But in the end, the only thing you can do to make sure you remember them is to practice, practice, practice, like you've been doing. You need to write them out as well. Stories help you remember what a character looks like, but when it finally becomes ingrained in your mind--when you finally "learn" it--you'll know it by heart and won't need a mnemonic. :) 晚上 (wănshàng) means "evening". 晚 means "late", but I don't have a very good mnemonic for this one. 晚 is also in 晚饭 (wănfàn, dinner). 早上 (zăoshàng) means "morning". 早 means "early" and consists of 日, which is a character for "sun" or "day". Don't you think 早 looks a bit like a SUNflower? So, remember in your mind that sunflowers open up to the sun, EARLY, and that the character looks like a sunflower. Also seen in 早餐 （zăocān, breakfast) It may sound crazy, and there are some who advocate a rote-only approach, but this helps me initially remember characters until I can recognize them intuitively. Once you are exposed to more radicals and phonetics, you'll begin to realize that some characters have helpful hints built in--some characters that contain similar components have a similar pronunciation or meaning. But you'll need to get some more characters and components under your belt first.

it may take a while, nothing come easy. and i hope you are mastered it if you keep working on.