Grammar Question

Today's Mood: Relieved (It is Friday). Today's Music: Music Library on mix--Push by Matchbox 20 stuck in my head on an endless loop. Today's Writing: still revising, still chapter 9. Actually got 2 paragraphs written today--then erased. Then wrote one again. Today's Quote:

Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't. Mark Twain

(1835 - 1910)

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Here's a grammar question for you: if I am writing in first person, past tense, and my MC (main character) is REMEMBERING something that happened, do I write that in past perfect? We had been in the weight room when ....?

I wrote a paragraph like that and it seemed so...cumbersome. Weak. So I switched it to past tense--but that didn't seem quite right. Although maybe I could do this as a flashback? With a white space above and below?

Or maybe I should just take that memory out and make it a separate scene and put it in the linear timeline? Then it would be past tense. Maybe this would make it more active?

And is there any benefit for having it one way or another? I mean, I've read stuff about mixing up the timeline to create an impact. But I guess I'd love to know what impact it is supposed to have.

Any thoughts on the matter?