A lot of questions indeed. I would like to say that it is like riding a bike. Sure I can tell you everything about it, and sure I can answer any questions you have, but the only way to learn it is by doing it. Practice and discover. Half of the questions you asked are not just simple matters of knowing how it is done and then you are able to do it, you have to experiment and build a basis, so you can move from there and use systems that work for you, rather than those made by others.
Turning it into chunks, stories, or images. Putting them in palaces, peg lists, image clusters, whatever you like. you mentioned that you prefer to not use palaces because they seem to be too much. I would like to counter that by mentioning that mnemonics is in no way a shortcut. It is an alternative that requires you to put in a lot of work beforehand, so you don’t have to do all the work afterwards.
A pale looking Emir wearing black robes with a red sleeve and a green hat walks into a store. Behind him is a long line of arabs interlocking their arms to form a chain. Behind the counter, an arabic man. The emir buys a vacation for each of the arabs behind him. Each ticket he collects in a cup which he hands down the line.
There you got the United Arab Emirates, whose capital is Dubai and the flag is a vertical red line, with green, white and black bars next to it. Some of their biggest aspects of the economy are business and tourism. The country is located in the “cup” of the middle eastern countries.
Just make your image, repeat the image and the meaning a few times, and you got it burned in your mind.
Make a palace, list, or any other tool to help you run though a lot of bullet points in order. Each place is a day, and then you just make images for what you want to remember of that day. Or you can keep a journal, that works too, because in all my years on this globe I have never needed to recall exactly on which day I did something special.
If the exact words and order are important, yes, that is a good way to do it. If not, it still is a very good way.
Turn their face into a caricaturistic image, turn their name into an image, combine the images. Oh, and be genuinly interested and focussed on names. Don’t remember because you want to remember, do so because deep inside you feel as if their name is the most important bit of information in the world.
Turn it into one huge memory palace. Or see what others did. Here we have a topic with some information on The Knowledge required to be mastered by London cab drivers: London Taxi Drivers: Memorizing "The Knowledge"
Study smells, know what makes a smell unique. What aspects are there to a certain smell. Warmth, sweetness, sharpness, etc. And work with smells, a lot. Smell things when you get the chance. Walk through a plant store, go smell the mint and lavender to remember.
I take it you mean skills like drawing or skating. Go do them, that is how you best memorize them.
Been asked a lot here, I believe the beginners page also has a part dedicaded to how to start this.
But same as the previous: do it. If you want to speak a language, go out and speak it.
Again, there are no shortcuts. You have to put in the hours if you want to see the results. I feel you suffer from Analysis Paralysis at the moment, where you don’t feel like you are prepared enough to start. There is one way, and only one way, to get through that: start doing. You will never be prepared enough until you actually start doing.