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trial and error, my friend! It all comes with experience. Take your time, enjoy the night, and play with your camera- it will not be a waste of your time.
A good photograph tells a story, but without words. What you want the photograph to tell the audience all depends on you and your imagination.
Every scene you photograph will be different based on available light, type and direction of light, and the type of picture you want (artistic, 1st person POV, etc).
The "right" shutter speed ultimately depends on many things!
You don't need to start with a 20 minute exposure (which is LONG!). Work your way up to longer exposures; start with short exposures and then watch what happens when you continue to add additional seconds or minutes to the exposure time. When you do that, you will get a feel for how much more light can be added to the picture.
Here are a few quick amateur examples of pics I took 10 years ago with a very basic 100 dollar point and shoot camera set to manual mode.
Lightning picture: F4 25 second exposure
Fireworks: F4.5 8 second exposure
Race cars at Petite LeMans: F3 1.3 second exposure
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