What are the steps to writing a JS program?

Start with an idea for what you want your program to do. Think big picture. Maybe you want your portfolio project to be an online shopping store, or maybe a website where you can search and display Flickr photos with certain tags.

The next step is to scale that big idea into smaller tasks. Write out a list of all the things your code needs to do to make that bigger goal happen. For the second example, you would need to include a search button, deal with user input, and use AJAX to get photos from Flickr.

This is when the coding begins. Use what you learned in your Treehouse classes to start coding each of the smaller tasks. Preview it along the way to make sure each little bit works properly. If you get stuck, use an online resource like W3 or MDN. These are encyclopedias of coding knowledge that are indispensable to beginners. I've been using them all the time for my portfolio projects, when I don't know what method to use, for example.

You should start seeing your project come together, slowly but surely. Don't be afraid to ask for help. If you have questions you can't figure out, post them in the forums. Learning to code is a tough process, but you learn so much more by actually doing coding rather than just reading someone else's code. I hope this answer is helpful. All the best!