Writing High School Essays Killed My Creativity

Looking back at all these posts, I am starting to see what I already know: I suck at writing. Even though I've been in the top classes at the best schools, teachers have beaten this horrible format into me. This is great for writing dry, boring papers for school; those I can churn out in no time. Thought-provoking, creative writing, that's another story. I've noticed all these posts have started with a plain, introductory first paragraph. If I deleted the first paragraph to any of these articles, they would instantly become more interesting. Second, I always had a problem writng to a specific length. I would either express all my ideas on one page or write a book on one topic. Now that I have freedom, I don't know what to do. How many paragraphs should I write? How long should they be? Third, I was never taught to write in a format other than an essay. Journalists never write articles with an introduction or a conclusion. They care about things like leads and know that readers will usually never reach the end of the article. Writing for the web is another story altogether. I don't have any idea what to do. I guess that it just goes back to the old idea that the best way to learn to write is to read and write for yourself.