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?

Enthusiasm

Mood: business-like. Music: Sarah McLachlan--Fumbling toward Ecstasy. Writing: Finished revising chapter 5. Today's Quote:

No one keeps up his enthusiasm automatically. Enthusiasm must be nourished with
new actions, new aspirations, new efforts, new vision. It is one's own fault if
his enthusiasm is gone; he has failed to feed it. ROBERT BELANGER

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I love quotes. I subscribe to this little periodical called Good Stuff that is published every four weeks and is all quotes. (800-220-8600) And one of my feeds is a quote of the day site http://www.quotationspage.com/qotd.html Today the first quote is: "Of course the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you--if you don't play, you can't win." by Robert Heinlein Isn't that a great quote? Sometimes I just need to be reminded of those kind of things.

It's almost obscence, but I have to admit that it felt good to get up at 5:45 and come in to work to write. I love sleeping in on the weekends, but writing--well, there isn't anything else like it! (except maybe really good sex) My psyche--my soul misses that time of being totally focused. Studies show that we only use a small portion of our brain. I like to think that when I'm writing, I use a bit more than usual. (which may not say much for me, but there you go.)

Anyway, feed your passion. Write something today!