Metaphors are known to present both opportunities and challenges for second language learners, but relatively little is known about learners' awareness of them. To investigate this, we analyzed 72 argumentative essays written in English by a group of 37 intermediate Chinese university students of English. We identified metaphors using an established identification procedure, and then used dictionary descriptions and corpus procedures to identify unconventional uses. Seeking to understand students' thoughts about their uses of metaphor, we interviewed them within 2 days of the writing task. In this article, we explore the boundary between unconscious use of non-nativelike metaphors and deliberate choices. We argue that in many cases, our learners made conscious, careful language choices which they were able to articulate fluently and thoughtfully. Interview data show that sometimes they consciously decided to use a metaphor from their L1, fully aware that it was not a nativelike use in English, for one of various communicative functions. Our study extends thinking on deliberate metaphor, suggesting implications for its use in reframing research into second language metaphor use. Pedagogical implications are presented for developing learners' metaphoric competence in L2 writing classrooms.