or something like that

One day you will write a scholarly paper about trucking...and it will gain you whatever you desire..you are smart AND street wise

I hope you are doing alright today.

and hope today will be a better day

What you use regularly (generally) stays sharp; what you don't use gets rusty. (If I haven't done a task in a long time, I often find myself making many of the same old mistakes (especially if I don't give myself a lot of "switchover time&quot ; but I commonly find myself with a much quicker learning curve -- along a certain helpful openness that routine can diminish.)

Don't worry about it. When you have the time to deal with it, it'll come back. And personally, I found that technical writing improved my skills considerably through sheer repetition. (Notably, I had to write some of the most boring crap ever, and at great length.)

Moreover, once things quiet down, you can make a point of exercising different writing styles so that shifting gears becomes easier. (I'm not sure that as a writer I will ever reach a "fixed point"; ie, so that I would write pretty much the same thing on any two occasions... which I think is a good thing, and a reasonable reflection of changing capabilities, knowledge, state, etc.)

Nonetheless, you "sound" about the same to me; and the more imaginatively creative stuff (like telling a good story, even when you know the story) isn't always something that a person can simply just "pound out", regardless of state and circumstances (eg, like being tired, occupied with other stuff, etc).

Personally, I try to adjust what I try to do to better fit my state and other circumstances (like to do what seems to come easily and almost automatically). (Of course, this isn't always possible; but certain tasks just aren't as suitable for a "forced march" effort, and you must learn to recognize such tasks.) And I find this much less frustrating, in addition to being much more effective.

Now, this isn't to say that one should try to avoid all the hard stuff, but rather to best match the moment to the task, while doing what needs to done.

Furthermore, and if I recall correctly, you've been working hard; and this is no time to be adding to your worries.

(A little anecdote: Whenever I get overconscious about my typing, it goes from bad to completely inept... like right now. And, man, this can be a very hard thing to overcome when I'm tired, ill, or distracted.)

Take it easy, Tobin. You're doing good.

In 4 short paragraphs. I'm not kidding.

Your writing skills have been stretched and expanded. You just need to incorporate the new aspects of yourself and explore them. Many artists find their talents have somehow changed and even improved in the interim between creative phases even if it wasn't a conscious change. Trust your sub-conscious inner artist and go with it. Your creativity is maturing.

There was a time in my life that I didn't do any artwork at all for 10 years. When I finally had the time I was scared at first but very soon I was amazed at how much better my art was than it had been. That will happen to you.

(My internal editor is wondering whether that sentence made any sense!)
But maybe more important… I think scholarly work is very different from creative work. A scholar gives back what he reads and hears. A "creative" person makes it up as he goes along…which doesn't necessarily make him popular with his teachers. I think your ability to tap into your scholar is a great gift. And OF COURSE your creativity will come back. It never went away!
And if, after December, your "creativity" doesn't return….take a short story writing course, a poetry course, or the like.
That should get the engine running again.

My favorite character from short fiction:

that you actually make money after you graduate with a business degree. I don't see anything wrong with acquiring wealth as long as you don't use it to destroy people and things.

I know I can write better than most college students. I take online classes and we have to write in forums not too much unlike this one for some of our assignments. I don't see how some of those students made it to their senior year judging by what goes on in those forums. There is very little in the way of creativity and critical thinking there. Most of it is just regurgitation of the text and other peoples' posts, "I've got to get my 200 words in today, but I don't have anything to say. I think I'll just restate what Tobin said." That kind of thing.

I think you just might have helped me out, rug. I'll post more on this later. Heading out to the highway now. Maybe a story awaits me.

plus under pressure. Plus as noted earlier, business courses suck your brains out.

Some people are made for business.

I could have finished my lifelong book thing if I had spent DU time on it. Oh, well.

until I started taking Creative Writing classes