Venkatesh Rao

Omg yessss, my favorite ex's are interviews w/ Michael Pollan & Margaret Atwood. Pollan bc he puts himself in the readers' shoes of being a naivete (almost an idiot) to see what's good story fodder. Atwood bc she's a WIZARD at telling the same scene in five different ways

Stand-ups are probably the best bet to learn from in this instance. A unique flair to embellish the mild to hilarity.

Re capitalizing on true-enough personal stories, Dave Chappelle (and other people) could write it. I vaguely remember that Scott Adams may even have a brief section about this in his book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. I could be misremembering, though.

It's easy, just configure your phone to play dramatic music when you're close to novel events.

You could start by listening to Jordan Peterson's lectures on Maps of Meaning. Astonishing stuff. Begins with a multi-hour exegesis of what's really going on in Pinocchio.

Short answer is, you have to learn. Start carrying around a notebook and jotting down details. Then flip through it often before you sit down to write. Trite, trite advice, but it's true. Seen it personally too many times to count. Also, this is one part of about 8 million parts.