Funny. I wrote a similar article, with almost the same title, seventeen years into my programming career, after writing my first novel.

https://adiamond.me/2015/01/writing-and-programming/

The huge help that programming gives to a novelist is the practice of breaking down huge, sprawling problems into smaller, manageable, interconnected pieces. As a programmer/writer, you also learn to keep the big picture in mind, so the pieces naturally assemble back into a whole.