How to come up with something to say in conversations?

Read more. Talk about the things you have read, the things you have learned, interesting current events.

When people are talking about how they felt in a situation, talk about how you would’ve felt, say what you would’ve done.

When people are talking about something they did, ask them how it made them feel, give your own interpretation.

Option 1.
Read Shakespeare and the King James Bible.You will have an intellectual arsenal from which to draw from.These cover just about every human endeavour.
Option 2.
Bullshit them ‘til you’re blue in the face :)
Option 3.-
Say what you think and don’t worry about it:))

randomness is the coolest thing every! pick the most retarded subject you can think of and go from there…i started a convo with a girl once telling her aligators have 2 sets of eyelids on each eye. we spoke for hours.

Conversation is really about listening. You need to be less self-conscious. Less worried about you and what you will say.

You need to be more interested in the other people. Think about what you don’t know about them. Ask them about themselves.

“What do you do for a living?”
“Is that a very intense job?”

“What do you do in your free time?”

“Where did you grow up?”

“Are you an only child or do you have siblings?”

Focus your attention on your companions (and keep it off yourself).

@lucillelucillelucille I hate bullshitters. I don’t get fooled for much longer than a couple of hours. Then I won’t believe anything they say, nor want to speak to them ever again, and later I tell others about how much I pity them, because people who have to bullshit just to be interesting are pathetic.

So, I wouldn’t recommend bullshitting to make friends.

Perhaps it would be easier for you to ask questions, then you can follow up with a reply.

Try to find out about their likes and dislikes then you can begin a question about why they like/don’t like something.

Keep trying, the more you worry about it, the worse you will feel when with other people.

Conversations are tough. Everyone struggles to find something interesting to say sometimes, even the most talkative conversationalists. The playing field is more even than you’d expect.

After following @marinelife‘s advice, you will probably have learned enough about the topics to say something eventually. But give it time! It’s fine to be the quiet questioner for a while. And it’s a lot easier.

@The_Idler -Option 2-said with tongue firmly in cheek:))I agree with you,btw

Take turns listening to NPR and Rush Limbaugh while driving to work. Then, depending upon the crowd, you can say I heard on (NPR / Rush), that (latest rant) is (good / bad ) for (object of latest rant).
If you can either affirm or disagree with either side. Very handy.

Or read about it yourself and form some opinions of your own and have interesting views and insights and be a real person and never use any commas and way too many ands just kidding.

Theres an underground hipnosis trick called strings.
The basis of which is as follows:

Ask the person a variety of questions and listen intently to their replies ie:
Where do you like to hang out?
What sorts of people do you find interesting?
What sorts of subjects interest you?
Do you have any hobbies?

This kind of puts the ball on conversation in their court, any answers they give, just tie an imaginary knot around them with an imaginary piece of string and hang them up in the left side of your vision, just dangling.

When the ball comes back to you, you’ve got 4 or 5 items of conversation that you know are of interest to that person. Just pull the first string and chat some bollox about that subject like:

“I’ve heard that such’n’such mall on dale street is a good place to hang out, are there any good coffee shops to hang out in there?”

If you don’t get anywhere with that one, just pull the next string and chat some more bollox. Eventually after speeking to a number of people, you’l have loads of info about different subjects that you know people will find interesting because you already know that thats what they were interested in.

Then the next time you go out, before you try sparking a conversation, hang a few strings with various topicks that got some good conversation the last time you went out and see what happens.

After some time and practice you may find you’ve got 10 or 12 strings dangling in front of you.

Also, don’t be afraid to write down and memorise the things that interest you, and put them out there, or even put your 2 pennies worth in with a conversation your friends are having, even if they don’t agree with what your saying, or your point of view, its your opinion and believe me, its always worth giving.

Just look at Fluther.

That’s one major problem with conversations…if you don’t jump into it and get involved, then it means you’re probably not interested and it’s then useless to force it.

But that may be wrong too…I have the same problems, and I have no answer. The only thing that breaks me out of it is spontaneous interest then I won’t shut up and not even know it. :/

Conversation is made up of relevance (stay on subject, don’t say whatever your wandering mind is thinking about), honesty (tell the truth about yourself), sincerity (don’t ‘put people on’), and friendliness. With that said try to stay away from demonstarting lower value. For example, however much you want to, don’t say things like “I’m shy” “I’m nervous” I don’t even tell people if I make a bad grade for example. In conversation I NEVER say anything that is negative about myself.
Wake up in the morning and do a tough workout. Seriously. This will help your mindset which affects your conversation. The first thirty minutes of your day put on a big cheesy grin and repeat at least 50 times “I can do it. I can do it. I can do it” This will give you energy throughout the day and will help your ‘inner game’ and self belief.
While you are working out (hard) repeat things like this to yourself “I’m charming. I am funny. I am interesting.” By ‘playing pretend’ as if you actually were all these things, you will one day become them.
Make a dream board. Put up pictures of large groups of people or people having fun and enjoying themselves. You will look at this everyday and it will become your reality.

Being a good conversationalist requires a lot of effort. There is no quick fix.

Read more—the news and things going on in the world today. Don’t be afraid to have an opinion. Take the initiative and start conversations about things of which you are knowledgeable. It’s hard being shy. I used to be very shy.