So far I've narrowed down the skills im going to focus on to 10/11. I still think this is too many.

So how many skills is a good number?

Generally, when I play the elder scrolls games I tend to end up focusing on about 4 skills, just because of my playstyle. For example, in Oblivion, my orcish warrior was a master of heavy armor, blunt weapons, and repairing things. My Breton mage mastered conjuration and destruction before anything else, and was quite experienced with alchemy and restoration

Think about the skills you'll be using to solve problems in game. Those are what it should come down to, really. Everything else can be dabbled in

Well I'll be focusing on alchemy, speech, sneak, pickpocketing & lockpicking. I'm still unsure on what weapon type I'll eventually specialize in. Right now I'm leaning more toward blades, daggers more specifically, but it's subject to change.

6 is enough for me, I want good specialization for each character so I could replay with something very different.

are we allowed to wield 2 "daggers" at once? (one each hand?)
if so then this is what i will be basing most of my skills on ... not sure how this is going to work out tbh

I am a fan of sword and shield combat so I will be focusing on Block, Heavy Armor, One-Handed, and Smithing. I tend to build characters with different types of playstyles in mind. You don't want to spread your points out too thin and prevent yourself from getting certain perks.

Whoa! There's no way I could narrow it down to 4 skills. I plan to focus on all Mage skills and all warrior skills minus block and 2 handed. Maybe a bit of speech.

I may be able to remove enchantment. :/

7 for me:

Destruction
Enchanting
Alteration
Restoration
One Handed
Light Armor
Smithing

I personally think 6 or 7 will prove to be the best. I think Skyrim's system will encourage specialization more so than Oblivion. But it's also a balance as well ... having 1 or 2 skills would be kinda boring and probably difficult.