I'm glad to have stumbled on this thread and I'll be interested to see where it goes!

I've started many conlangs but never gotten very far. Since my last serious attempt, I've developed the ability to read in five languages other than English and I've studied a few others, so I'm hoping that I'll be a lot more informed on my next serious attempt. For the present, I'm going to base simple words in each conlang on words from a designated language that I've studied, changing them to be unrecognizable but still conforming to the pronunciation rules of that language. Although I suppose it might be more interesting to adapt words from one language using the protocols of another. Hmm...

So I don't have a system yet, but that's where I'm going to start. As far as creating alphabets/syllabaries, I intend to do it, but ultimately I expect that everything will be written in English. It will be nice to have the alphabet in mind, but as long as the sounds of the language are firmly established, it's really just ornamentation. That's from the point of view of someone who wants for many people to enjoy his work and world--I'm sure it's different for different purposes.