My best advice for anyone like myself is to create real projects, try to create something that scratches an itch, something that can be sold etc.<p>For me this is my motivation: if I was doing it only for the sake of learning it I'd give up in a day.<p>Of course most of my inventions had fairly short shelf life if aby but I learned to program, well enough to get a well paid job. (And: one of these projects went ahead to save hours at a small company and another simplified procedures significantly at a local non-profit : )
I'd pick an area you want to learn (web dev, cs fundamentals, ...) and start a small project to practice on. Codeacademy and other online resources are great for learning the how of specific topics; working on a program will reinforce that knowledge while giving you a higher level view on how those topics apply or interact.<p>Project Euler (<a href="https://projecteuler.net/" rel="nofollow">https://projecteuler.net/</a>) is a great resource for learning the basics of a language. Just do some of the top 100 each time you pick a new one up. Also, if you're into math the harder ones are quite interesting.<p>If you're interested in web development, I'd be happy to talk on Skype and point you in the right direction. I could also do some code reviews every now and then to give you feedback on a project. Hit me up: jtfairbank+hn/at/gmail/dot/com
Why are you learning to code? To find a job as a programmer? Because you think it will help you at your current job? Because you are looking for a new challenge? Do you have something in mind that requires coding?<p>If you don't know anything about programming, I would recommend you "learn python the hard way" ( <a href="http://learnpythonthehardway.org/" rel="nofollow">http://learnpythonthehardway.org/</a> ) to get yourself familiar with Python, a programming language popular and easy to learn, and then start whatever you are interested in.<p>One more thing, why are you mentioning that you're a woman? I believe tech is a field where it shouldn't matter (I would matter more that you are a woman if you were asking, say, how to use a body building machine).
First what platform have you chosen? What sort of programs do you want to make or are interested in developing?<p>Computer languages have their strong and weak points.
Doing Windows, Apple, Linux, desktop, mobile or web, data, games, audio or art? There are lots of different ways to get things done and selecting the right tool that works for the task and that you like is a good start.
Not sure what level you are at, but for HTML, CSS basics, this is an ideal resource. Little more than the basics, and not too extensive either.<p><a href="http://learn.shayhowe.com/" rel="nofollow">http://learn.shayhowe.com/</a>