How the heck do I get started?

Hey everyone! I'm really perplexed by the idea of being able to code my own plugins, because I have a lot of ideas that I would love to bring to life. The thing is, I have no idea where to get started. I can't seem to find any solid information that is suitable for a newbie. I have a basic working knowledge in C, so I'm not completely clueless when it comes to programming. I would greatly appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction so I can start learning about what is involved with programming plugins. I'd love to be able to code a VST that works in all or most DAWs, but I'm fine with them only working in Reaper. Which way is easier?

Thanks for the info. I'll take a look at those asap =D

As another question, do you know how I would program useful extensions like SWS does? I particularly want to program a track bank interface, where I could drag and drop tracks in there and they would be stored on a per-project basis.

Cool, thanks for the help! I'll definitely post an update if I end up starting on the project.