Writing and Thinking Academically

This separation between academic and non-academic thinking and writing has always bothered me, I think primarily because academic thinking and academic writing seem interchangeable. We seem to take a clear, well structured essay as clear, well structured thinking. But these essays are more like a constructed posturing, adopting a language, a style, and a structure that somehow is seen as "more academic" than any other.

A bit about my history with this:
As an undergrad, I focused on creative writing. It was what I liked to do, it was what I found a weird restricting sort of freedom in. My academic writing, while fairly sound, was something completely different. It was stilted, awkward, and seemed like it came from somewhere else. So I would make uninteresting papers that held to this either imagined or suggested format / voice.

I think that this was my problem - I separated critical writing from creative writing, thinking that critical writing could, in no real way, be any sort of creative. I don't think I was alone in this sentiment.

So how can I tell when I'm thinking/writing academically? There are a few easy signs, like I try to not use profanity in academic writing, but apart from that, I've started to view every piece of writing as some sort of academic writing, even if It's not composed with the purpose of being "honorably" published. And I don't know if this is a good approach at all, but by approaching my "creative" enterprises with this sort of critical mind, I've sort of mixed things up in my mind. So now, when approaching "academic" writing, I try and think about it in a creative way.

Kind of like the Galloway and Thacker. They have all this pertinent information that they separate from the academic writing. But in reality, it's more interesting to see the process behind it. That's how I've started to approach my academic writing - like it's a conversation that I'm still figuring out. Because as I'm writing, that's what I'm doing. And I realize that everything I'm putting down is some manner of posturing, that I'm lying when I deliver this "more authentic" text of the "process behind the conclusion," but it at least points towards how I came to my conclusion. It's at least an attempt to show my own academic thinking.