Once you’ve found two examples of figurative language in description of your event, analyze how they are operating. That is, what essential attributes of the “superordinate” category do the event and the figurative referent share? To discover the essential attribute of the figurative language, you’ll need to find its reference to an original context (clothing in strait-laced, body in foot of a mountain, swamp in quagmire).

Next, propose some way to enliven the metaphor either by extending the terms of the dead metaphor or emphasizing other essential attributes of the referent.