I learned early on that asking questions is a good way to get started, though I eventually felt like even being a good listener wasn't a sufficient contribution to the conversation. And sometimes the convos got a little too one-sided for me (some people just don't reciprocate asking questions at all).
I remember meeting people in my 20s who were great storytellers and wished I could tell stories like that too. Somewhere in my 30s it finally occurred to me that this skill wasn't going to just happen spontaneously (for me, at least), so I made a more conscious effort to figure out how good storytelling worked. And yes, I sometimes even make mental notes about what I might talk to people about before I attend a social event. If I don't, I can still be astonishingly tongue-tied ("How was your trip to X?" Me: "Uh, fine." -- what a conversation closer!).
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I remember meeting people in my 20s who were great storytellers and wished I could tell stories like that too. Somewhere in my 30s it finally occurred to me that this skill wasn't going to just happen spontaneously (for me, at least), so I made a more conscious effort to figure out how good storytelling worked. And yes, I sometimes even make mental notes about what I might talk to people about before I attend a social event. If I don't, I can still be astonishingly tongue-tied ("How was your trip to X?" Me: "Uh, fine." -- what a conversation closer!).