Hey John -

Brand new as of June myself, and I feel you. Some chords of course are easier, but some really seemed impossible to me. D, for example, I struggled with for the longest time. And I still can't make a barre shape.

I think William's advice is what worked for me, too - focus on the shape, then on the clean tone, then on tempo. One thing that I do still is make the shape, play each string in the chord one at a time, listen for anything off, and correct. I like to do some flat picking exercises using chord shapes, too. Just strumming the same chord over and over can get a bit . . . well, monotonous.