MarkLogic: write data to documents in query and then access those documents in the same query

In MarkLogic I want to write functions that create documents/ maps, then access those documents/ maps in that query - I believe doing this will avoid memory issues/ timing out.

But, unless I run each function in a separate query, the code doesn't work. How can I force one function to run only when another has completely finished: i.e, saved a document to disk?