I have a 16-year-old who loves to write. When he was in 2nd grade he got a headache every time I asked him to write one sentence. His love of writing never really showed up in schoolwork. But when he showed me a poem he wrote in his free time, and told me he wanted to write a novel, I knew I had a writer.

These days, instead of little kid crying over a silly one sentence request, I have a teen who needs help crafting his first novel. He also needs ideas for short stories to sharpen his storytelling skills. These aren’t the sort of tools that come with most high school language arts writing curriculum. But seriously, I’m not going to drown the guy in boring essay assignments when he has writing projects and goals of his own. Who am I to stand in his way? (Of course, I taught him the essay structure, real quick, like in one semester so he could get on with real work.)

So when heard about a new digital writing tool, designed to guide students on the road to their own awesome stories, I was excited to check it out, and so was my son.

Disclosure: I received free access to the product and compensation for my time writing this review. The views found herein are my honest opinion, and there is no benefit to me if you buy the product or not.

What you get with Bardsy

Printable Writing Activities

My son found the printables very helpful for story creation. The student can click on which area of a story they want to work on and they will see a variety of creative worksheets to help them brainstorm the different components of their story.

Editor - Prospero

The editor is useful when starting a new story from the Story Spinner or if you don’t have another editor. For example, this would replace Google Docs, or Word files. Your student can write and save their work directly in the Bardsy editor. Your student may find they like to Bardsy editor more than other editors, because it specifically designed for the creative writing process.

Teaching Videos

Great for teaching your child about different components of the story writing process.

Writing Prompts - Story Spinner

Writing prompts are a popular tool among professional writers. Anyone looking to bring their craft to the next level finds that it is sometimes helpful to just be given an idea and jump into the writing. (Instead of spending and hour trying to think up an idea :))

Prompts are also a helpful way to push your writing out of your comfort zone. They encourage you to explore different themes and characters than you might normally write about, and this strengthens your storytelling skills.

The Bardy prompt generator is simple and students can spin again if they hate the first idea, once they spin an idea they like, they can get started writing.

Your Child can Submit Stories for Anthologies

It can be very intimidating to submit your writing to someone. Whether it is mom, a contest, or a magazine. Bardsy helps kids practice without the fear, as it creates student anthologies based on submissions from students. I think this a great, non-threatening way for beginners’ to get used to submitting their work.

Bardsy is an Easy to Use Digital Writing Tool for Students

One of my favorite things about the Bardsy platform is how clean and intuitive the design is. It’s easy to get to the various tools available and although they are offering plenty of tools, they are not overwhelming because of the clean, organized way the platform presents them.

Bardsy Makes Writing Fun

This is important whether you have an eager, advanced writer like me, or a struggling resistant writer. The process of making up your own stories should be fun. And when kids are having fun their brains light up and they learn better.