How can I make the jump from writing high level code, using other people's libraries, to writing my own programs in mid-level languages (C, Rust, Zig). I want to program a custom Windows console in Rust (or Zig or C), but I have no idea where to start. I know a bit about how windows are made and displayed, and I've made a fairly complete Android app in Java, but my only experience delving into lower languages in making a (terrible) calculator in assembly and a few extremely basic utility programs in C (Ex. an https.exe that I use to send an https request and get a response, but even that was mostly just copy and pasting).

There just seems to be this big gap between where I'm at and where I want to be with no clear starting path.


I'm fairly good at string/char* manipulation, I can usually solve most basic algorithm or data structure challenges, it's just the further abstraction and library knowledge I guess?