How can I improve my social skills?

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I feel good and I'm starting to like talking however I feel like my social skills are bad. I talk a lot about tattoos and dogs. I feel like it's hard not to talk about that stuff. I also talk about books that I like.

People seem to think I'm weird. They also say I dont talk in a normal way.

You sound pretty average by the standards of people on here. I'm not sure I have any suggestions, I'm always a few words away from starting to lecture about history again.

You probably will go on a big ramble about one of your special interests at some point. If you have something to say and speak confidently you can actually capture an audience. I watched a near hour long video on Animorphs (I've never read it) because the host was able to make it interesting. If you sense people are bored, just apologize. I sometimes find myself going on a long-winded tangent about a subject I like, and I just say "sorry, I know I was rambling," and then let the other person speak for a bit. It's in my nature to occasionally ramble, I just have to deal with it when it happens.

for me it is kind of unusual I can be like really quiet around people I don't know like I have to kind of get used to people before I can try and open up more. That said with the job I have I am like too afraid of trying to initiate conversation with any co-workers and sometimes some say hi or like hi how are you doing so I say I am fine and nothing else even though later I will think I should have asked them how they were in return or this or that and sometimes I do but with the social anxiety and autism it hs hard to remember it in time for all interactions, so then of course I worry about if people thought I was rude or not or just already recognize I don't talk much at work and just kinda already expect I wont say much in the way of conversation.

I keep thinking about trying to initiate talking to someone at work, like even just to say hi and be the one asking how they are. But then I get stupidly worried about what people will think if I suddenly start attempting to display more social behavior and start attempting to interact with people more so I then still feel I have to default to my stone wall around myself where I just don't let anyone in cause that is what people already saw of me and I get really worried if I open up more they will all just think I am stupid and just bully me all over again like when I was growing up...so yeah I am basically afraid to express myself so I end up putting up a wall...like i want to talk to people and I want to have friends but I can't even express that so people just assume i never want to be bothered....