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It's normal, but not good.
You probably did so well the other day because you were not anticipating the shot and were just 'shooting' in a relaxed way.
Then when you went back you put a little more pressure on yourself and your budding bad habit took off. To make things even worse I am willing to bet that you started to compensate for the flinch (even if you don't realize you have one) and began to throw rounds all over the place rather than just low.
The solution is easy, but it is important that you do these three things:
1: Dryfire at home or at the range, you should dryfire more than you shoot. make sure that you focus on follow-through (hold the trigger for a second or two after each shot, then release) and ensure that your sight picture stays good during the entire firing process and follow through. Pull the trigger much slower than you have been. It is not always appropriate to use a real slow trigger squeeze, but for learning and getting over a flinch it is important.
2: Shoot SLOOOOOOWLY when you do go to the range. Try to focus on pulling the trigger so slowly that you are surprised when the weapon fires. Again, you won't have to do this all the time, but it will help you get your mojo back quickly. Also, it is good to shoot a few shots this way at the beginning and end of each shooting session to reinforce good habits and ward off bad ones.
3: Have your buddy load (or not) your pistol for you one round at a time and then hand it to you to shoot. The idea is that you won't know whether the pistol is going to fire or just go click. This will make any bad habits painfully obvious (since recoil won't mask a flinch if the weapon is unloaded) and reinforce good ones by giving you positive feedback when your buddy slips a live round in the chamber. You should start out with your buddy leaving the weapon unloaded (but working the action, etc. so you won't know) most of the time.
I have walked several friends who were having problems through a couple hours at the range as I have described above and they always brought thier groups in dramatically by the end of the session...usually only a couple inches at 7 yards.
When you are shooting, for practice, stop whenever you start to notice something going wrong and take a break for a second. You don't want to just drive on because you will just end up reinforcing the mistake. Figure out what you are doing, slow down or make changes as necessary, and then continue.
There is, of course, lots more to shooting well, but I don't think you should worry about them until you get back on the paper and are comfortable with the weapon. Then start refining your technique, getting faster, and even more accurate. Seaver gives excellent advice, that may well improve your shooting, but I don't think it is responbible for the disaster that was your last range trip.
Good luck, and let us know how things go.
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"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." - Winston Churchill
"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act out their dream with open eyes, to make it possible." Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence
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