thanks.

To be honest, I kind of struggle either way.

It's true that recently i've been trying hard to concentrate on the 'fun' element of it all.

But that's kind of because, before that, I was clearly guilty of boring them. I posted some field reports on another forum, and that was the main criticism. ''You are boring these girls to death. Be fun!!''

I'm clearly very stuck, and not entirely sure how to move past this!

As you say, learning to hold a conversation is the basics of it, but when I revert back to concentrating on not being 'fun'(which, as yuo say, comes across as try hard and needy) my interactions kind of look like:

me:Hi! I wanted to talk to you. Your awsome jacket caught my eye!
her: thanks
me: Don't see orange leather jackets being worn much!
her: nope!
me: So.............where are you headed tonight?
her: Xbar
me: Oh cool. I was there last night! 80's music. Love it
her: yeah
me: You like 80's music?
her: It's ok
me: Who are you here with?
her: My friends over there
me: How do you know them all?
her: Just work
me: I'm gonna guess you're in fashion for a job?
her: No. Admin.
me: Ahhh...I was way off! How do you like it?
her: it's ok. Listen I gotta go. Bye! *walks off*