The Art of Conversation

Ok so I've been at my plan of trying to talk to more people for a few weeks now. Now I've always known that I'm not a great conversationalist. Whenever I talk to someone, there are usually gaps or breaks in the conversation and thats usually because I dont know what to say next. You see, my thought process when I talk to someone works like this. If I know you, than I usually have a list of one or two topics associated with you, for instance video games or clothes or movies. Then I search my brain for any new stories that I know in those topics and use those as pieces of conversation. Problem is, when I dont have any stories or run out of them, thats when I run out of things to say. Worse still is if I dont know you. Then I use my list of generic topics which usually runs out a lot faster. Now I've come to realize that having stories to tell is the driving force behind a conversation, and that my lack of stories is the reason for my weak conversation skills. But I often wonder why that is? I mean, I think I experience the average amount of interesting things for a person, why is it that when it comes to story telling I usually draw a blank? I'm always amazed when I'm around talkative people and watching how they operate. Its like they have a seemingly endless amount of stories that they can pull out of nothing. I mean there I am, still searching for the next thing to say and they've already brought up a new story to tell. I've accepted that good conversation skills is something you're born with or not, because try as I might that story resevoir in my brain never fills up fast enough or full enough. In my recent attempts at conversations, I've been put in a few situations where the onus was solely on my to provide the bulk of the conversation and while I think I battled admirably it really pushed the limits of my abilities and its something I know I can't do on a consistent basis. So I'm convinced that the right girl for me has to have a talkative personality, not necessarily a chatter box but someone who can drive a conversation because I do much btter responding to stories rather than trying to come up with them. It works because a friend of mine was the best at that and she could get me to talk for hours. Now that I think about it, I guess that explains my parents, since my dad is a quiet guy like myself and my mom is quite the opposite. So I guess the old saying is true, opposites do attract.