Use ReimuB and never go back.
Seriously. Forward focus is the only thing that will get you through VoWG.
In Imperishable Night I "cheat" by using Magic Team. Namely because I hate fighting Marisa in Stage 4, but love love looove fighting Reimu. She is probably one of my favorite Touhou stages ever. This is because I tend to do much better when streaming instead of micrododging, and that theme of hers is just glorious.
Anyways, I've mostly been playing a lot of Double Spoiler. What I find happening with my progress is I'll have on and off days for different spellcards. This is usually remedied by, again, saving replays of failed runs, and then watching them before attempting again. This allows me to both make sure I have the parts I can do properly mapped out in my head, and to see what I did wrong.
Great example: I'm currently taking on 5-8. Being able to wipe out all the anchors except for three on the top of the screen before they start spraying bullets is more or less done on reflex at this point, even though I can't seem to get close enough to Murasa to take a photo of her. Some days, however, I have difficulty even clearing all the anchors. This usually means I need to go look at my replay again, and sure enough, I'll find there's some move that I did last time that I'm not doing this time.
Replays aren't just for bragging rights. They're really vital study tools for being able to do better.