Metaphor is used for persuading, teaching, creating, exploring, problem solving, and explaining the unexplainable. Despite the generations of philosophical and literary scholars who have analyzed metaphor and the attention focused on metaphor in recent years by cognitive psychologists, little is known about how writers generate metaphor in the process of composition. Using Protocol Analysis to create a process model of the generation of metaphor, this case study examines the writing processes of four undergraduates

Subjects, who were selected for their penchant for metaphoric writing, composed two drafts of a narrative and descriptive essay while recording their thoughts into tape recorders. Transcripts, essays, interviews, and observations were examined for evidence about how metaphor evolves. Findings indicate that a catalyst in the form of image, emotion, or tone precipitated the creation of original composed metaphor. The topic preceded the vehicle in sentence structure, as well as in thought processes. Search for the vehicle required effort and strategy that was lost in the short term memory: in the follow-up interview subjects had forgotten their struggle to identify a vehicle, reporting that the creation of metaphor was effortless and spontaneous. Metaphors that were generated spontaneously were usually clichés, derived forms, or were not original with these essays. Subjects reinforced their use of metaphors by expressing a fascination for them and pleasure in their creation. Metaphor not only enriched the text but opened investigation, engendered a point of view, reversed an attitude, and created new realities.