What to do when you've finished
doing what you're doing
Dearest ones,
So surprising to sit down to post again on the six steps of writing memoir and realize I’d written them all—six steps sent out into the world, free as birds.
Has this ever happened to you? You get ’er done and it doesn’t register? You work hard to the finish line without fanfare, finale, or fireworks. Then, when you realize it’s behind you, you feel a totally bearable lightness of being.1
Six steps of writing memoir, listed (but not composed) 1 to 6.
With the job done, maybe you have a moment of now what, followed by shuffling papers, doing laundry, or playing hooky outdoors. Or maybe you’re up for a work day, in which case do it! When I decide to go all in, I locate my place in the day using a method well known to retreat centers.
The method: there’s a schedule. Maybe pinned to the wall, or on walls all over the place, telling you what you’re supposed to do and when. Six-twenty a.m.? Ring the big bell, loudly, eight times (that was one of my jobs at a recent retreat). Noon? Lunch in the big hall. Nine p.m.? The day is done, time to sleep or to continue creative, intellectual, or spiritual practice on your own.
If it sounds confining, I hear you, but there can be freedom in the structure of a schedule. You can focus on the task at hand, without interruption or multitasking. Relax. You have no appointments, obligations, or calls to make.
The task at hand is why you’re there. You’ve set aside a time and place for it.
Me, I return home from such structured programs as I do from the river, with an inner way of being that lingers for days or weeks. Having felt the guidance of knowing what to do when, I continue to dwell within its form and freedom. It’s like writing an essay when you’re clear on the structure.2
“Structure. Once I have figured out structure, every other challenge of the writing process seems a walk in the park by comparison.”
— Nell Boeschenstein, “When Structure Sets You Free”
Back home, after retreat or river glow have faded (but remain in spirit), I may create a schedule to follow. Don’t have one? Write one.3 Here’s a sample, fabricated with only the most advanced, high-tech tools of our day.
Then if you’re working/playing in the throes of creativity, and you pause fuzzy headed forgetting what’s past and what’s ahead, you go to the schedule.
I’m not perfect at it. Writing memoir is demanding emotionally, mentally, and in terms of time. Knowing what’s up, however, I’m better able to relax, either writing or turning to other important parts of life. The structure gives us a framework; I can say aye or nay to it. Freedom.
I have more to say about writing memoir, and I’d like to say it to you one on one, so be sure to read about Reading Water Consults in Events, below.
In June I ended my post with, “Let’s see where we are with our creativity by the next full moon.” Since late May’s Blue Moon, we’ve also gone through late June’s Strong Sun Moon (which caught us at the same time as Mercury in retrograde, which stays with us til July 23, 2026), I’ve submitted applications to residency programs where I’d like to complete my memoir-in-progress. And I’m writing memoir.
And you? What is up writing/creativity wise?
Drop a note in Comments. I respond to all (except to interlopers).
Stay in touch. With love and care,
Events
EARTHBOUND LIVE WITH SUSAN J. TWEIT
In mid June, I joined my friend, writing colleague, biologist, and multi-award-winning author Susan J. Tweit on her video series called Earthbound Live.Susan, too, evolved from science and science writing to personal essays and memoir. We talked of books, writing, rivers, and home.
If you missed our conversation, here’s the video to watch or hear: susanjtweit.substack.com/p/earthbound-live-with-becca-lawton-4d9.
Many thanks to Susan and all who attended!
FREE READING WATER CONSULTS for paid subscribers
I must be honest. Benefits have changed and changed again for you angel (paid) subscribers. You make this site possible, and I’d like to offer a gift.
To thank annual paid subscribers, I’m offering once yearly, half-hour zoom consults on your work-in-progress, your creative life, your water zeitgeist.
My experience and training in teaching writing courses, understanding water, editing manuscripts, and personal coaching run deep, and I’d love to help you assess this moment in your creative work and/or life.
For the $80 cost of annual paid membership in Reading Water with Becca Lawton, you receive professional feedback on pages of your work, strategy for publishing, or conversation about your writing life.
This offer is not automated at the moment, but there’s an easy way for you sign up: enroll as a paid subscriber below, then visit the paid subscriber chat and say you’d like to schedule a time. We’ll take it from there.
(This offer also applies to current paid subscribers who have been long-term, month-to-month subscribers for twelve months or more. You can just reach out to me in the chat and we’ll get started.)
“Becca speaks with authority (without sounding authoritarian). She is a pipeline, a conduit, for currents of truth that flow through her and from her.”
— S. Bono, writer/editor/instructor
“Becca taught me to write. I learned more from working one-on-one with her than from all my other courses and teachers put together.”
— R. Smith, scientist/writer
READINGS AND OUTINGS
I’m also scheduled for upcoming literary events in September at the Mesa Verde Literary Festival (Colorado fires allowing) and in October at Jack London State Historic Park (heat and rain allowing). Watch this space.
Reading Water Podcast will be back later in July and in August with the fabulous poet Moira Magneson, current Poet Laureate of El Dorado County, California, and our own Substack whiz and essayist-memoirist-terraphiliac Susan J. Tweit!
Notes & More Reading
Speaking of fireworks, aren’t they an idea whose time has passed? Check this out: https://www.hhc.earth/knowledge-base/articles/the-dutch-fireworks-ban-what-are-the-environmental-benefits. “From 2026/27, the Dutch fireworks ban will sharply reduce environmental damage. It prevents millions of kilos of waste, major emissions of toxic metals like copper and barium, almost 5% of annual fine dust pollution, and hundreds of tonnes of CO₂, plus hidden impacts from production and transport.” Y’know, we might want to follow the Dutch lead.
I love the Jane Friedman blog and newsletter, as well as the classes she and her associates offer through her site. A fabulous resource for writers. This essay by Nell Boeschenstein teaches a method of finding a piece’s structure by going “to the proverbial key store like a normal person and have one made.” Check it out.
Or as Coach Boone said in Remember the Titans, “find a drunk and trade for his.” Actually that wasn’t a comment about schedules, it was what the players had to do if they didn’t have a jacket and tie.
P.S. Read more about the art+science of river life in this newsletter’s namesake book, Reading Water, a San Francisco Chronicle Bay Area Bestseller and finalist for the 2003 ForeWord Nature Book of the Year Award.
What writers and editors say
Rebecca Lawton’s work “is both mirror and map, a reminder that a life can take the shape of the river itself . . .” — Ellen Meloy, author, Eating Stone and The Anthropology of Turquoise
“Honest in her assessment of the psychological costs of a gypsy life, artful in her understanding of currents and seasons, Lawton depicts the rivers taking away as well as giving . . . “ — David James Duncan, author, The River Why and Sun House
“Rebecca Lawton doesn’t just read water, she understands it, speaks it, lives it, and loves it.” — Pamela Michael, editor of The Gift of Rivers
Rebecca Lawton “touches on cancer, bird-watching, Zen sutras, family history, environmental contamination, and more. What pulls it all together is Lawton’s sizable talent, and pathos, and her good sense in seeing how interconnected we all, ultimately, are.” — Derek Askey, senior editor, The Sun
I so agree about the freedom of a structure, Becca. Having some kind of structure for my day frees my creative energy for the work that is also my joy: writing about terraphilia and our bond with this Earth and all of life. A structure means I don't have to invent everything anew, and I can let my imagination wander within that space. It's a kind of focusing that also frees me, if that makes sense. Thanks for the gift of your insights, and also for reposting our fruitful and fun Earthbound Live talk, as well as for the invite to your podcast. I'm honored and looking forward to that conversation! Blessings from my smoke-clogged valley in the desperately dry greater Southwest.
Becca, the tension between structure and freedom is real and worthy of conversation. I’m less about schedules—though at times could probably benefit from a little more scheduling (!)—but do appreciate the role of structure: using constraints to enhance creativity, commitment in relationship as a way to nurture safety and personal growth, personal boundaries to enhance our own wellbeing. xo
P.S. I love the handwritten schedule!!