Hallo Lance,

equally in what language you code, you must have a deep understanding of used microcontroller. Some timing critical code should not be written in C.
And it's very important that C compiler actually supports your certain derivative.

It's always recommended to have some detailed testing. At the beginning write only very small programs and look what happens. Then go to more complex testing programs. You must become familiar with your C compiler.
And if you have some problems, I am sure that you will get help here.

Bye,
Kai