Member J. is reading the book titled “Several Short Sentences About Writing” by Verlyn Klinkenborg (she recommends it). Which got us talking about chronology in writing. A professor had told her that her memoir must be in chronological order. Klinkborg says that storytelling (whether oral or written) is associative, so you tell the parts that are relevant at the time. We seemed to agree that you need to tell the story in a way that works for you and your story, not necessarily chronologically. Flashbacks are a classic storytelling tool that use association rather than chronology to advance the narrative.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/13155290-several-short-sentences-about-writing