It was definitely hard at first. I had to learn to loosen up, to do all the things we were specifically told not to do in journalism, such as reveal opinions and personality. (And I still haven't shaken all those old habits. For instance, I still write too tight, as though I had to fit an entire novel into 2000 words!) I wonder if you could try an in-between route, like long-form magazine or nonfiction book writing? I was lucky that I did a lot of that sort of journalism, where there's room for multisensory descriptions and describing people's clothing, accents, and backgrounds.

I hope this helps. Good luck with your writing.