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Across 4 experiments, undergraduate students viewed a 19-min videotape lecture about types of creativity and then wrote a compare-and-contrast essay for 25 min. In Experiments 1 (immediate writing) and 2 (delayed writing), Ss either listened or took notes under one of 3 note-taking formats and then wrote with or without notes. In both experiments, Ss writing from their own notes (encoding plus external storage) composed more organized and lengthier essays than Ss writing without their notes (encoding only). Experiments 3 and 4 examined the external-storage effect separately from the encoding effect. In delayed writing (Experiment 4), Ss composing from provided notes wrote lengthier essays than Ss composing without notes. Results support the effects of external storage and encoding plus external storage on writing processes.