practice makes....?

I haven't been drawing lately, so I'm really not improving. I decided to finally bust out the drawing instructional book, and do some straight up practice. They said to do the basic head 12x, but honestly I can't stay interested for very long, so I only did 9 (and even that took 2 sittings). My favorites are # 2, 3, and 6. Its funny how, even though I was sketching purely from imagination, they all came out looking very different. I love to write short stories and its kind of the same thing; the characters just sort of appear, with you being no more than just a portal to their entry into this world. Maybe thats whats having kids is like? I wouldn't know. Anyway, same old same old, I need to practice more or I'll never get better. We've heard this all before.