Some of the most rewarding courses I took during my time in college were writing courses, in both fiction and poetry. Definitely, it helped refine my grammar and composition skills.
But the creative writing courses really provided a lot of other valuable experience too. Having to put together a creative work involves parts of my brain I never really used while coding -- it was sort of a challenge to put aside the methodical, linear path I live in while programming and have to imagine a world, then put someone in it, and have them do things that people might want to know about.
The other nice thing about workshop-based writing courses is that you generally read and comment on works written by your fellow students. You learn new craft skills from reading their work for sure, but you also learn how to give constructive criticism where it needs to be given.
This sort of diplomacy is something you need to practice in order to be good at it. It will help you later when you're in a code review meeting at work and you are the guy who can step up and say something more useful than "you're doing it all wrong, that code sucks, and so do you."
But the creative writing courses really provided a lot of other valuable experience too. Having to put together a creative work involves parts of my brain I never really used while coding -- it was sort of a challenge to put aside the methodical, linear path I live in while programming and have to imagine a world, then put someone in it, and have them do things that people might want to know about.
The other nice thing about workshop-based writing courses is that you generally read and comment on works written by your fellow students. You learn new craft skills from reading their work for sure, but you also learn how to give constructive criticism where it needs to be given.
This sort of diplomacy is something you need to practice in order to be good at it. It will help you later when you're in a code review meeting at work and you are the guy who can step up and say something more useful than "you're doing it all wrong, that code sucks, and so do you."