What sorts of things are you interested in? You'll have better luck working on something you find exciting. If you get stuck on technicalities, two good things

What sorts of things are you interested in? You'll have better luck working on something you find exciting. If you get stuck on technicalities, two good things to try are (a) Google code search (http://code.google.com/codesearch http://code.google.com/codesearch) for examples related to what you're doing (for example, if you were trying to make an S3 connection from Python, you could check http://code.google.com/codesearch#search/&q=s3connection%20lang:python&type=cs http://code.google.com/codesearch#search/&q=s3connection...) and (b) a relevant IRC channel if there is one. If there are any programmer meetups in your area, try going and asking for help in person. When I was your age and trying to learn programming, I didn't know anyone who could help me. In retrospect, that was the #1 thing that held me back.