River of Thoughts

Christine Royse Niles — Changing the world one word at a time

A New Gift For You

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Being a writer can get overwhelming, can’t it?

I’m here to help. The Growing Writer’s Survival Kit offers you an ever-expanding set of tools to get through any roadblock you’re facing.

  • Looking to cut through the chaos? The Next Steps Planning Worksheet will help you through your next project.

  • Ready to launch your book? A Minimalist Guide to Book Launches will cut through the noise and get your work out there.

  • Feeling down? The Secret might encourage you when you hit one of those days when you just plain can’t keep going.

Get your FREE copies (and get notified when Time to Write is released):

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Quitter Giveaway

by Christine | 89 Comments

Wow. What a weekend.   So many amazing dreamers dreaming amazing dreams. So many online friends became in-real-life friends. Encouragement Support Hope That’s what the Quitter community is all about.  Recovering the ability to dream, learning practical ways to make your dream real without throwing away your livelihood. Quitter isn’t about quitting by giving up, it’s about finding a way to bridge passion and responsibility. To do what you love and not become a slave to your bills. It’s how I hustled my way to becoming a real writer. So I’m kinda proof that it works. During the conference, Jon […]

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The Writer’s Playlist

by Christine | 4 Comments

In August of 2011 (wow..that’s a long time ago!), I attended Jon Acuff’s very first Quitter Conference, where I came away reeling from the fire-hose of motivation and inspiration and practical advice about how to recover, develop, and finally realize (as in make real) my dream of being a writer. (Which I did, by the way.) It works with any dream, really. Unless your dream is to marry Prince William and eventually take the throne as the Queen of England. I hate to tell you, but that one is a bit of a longshot, as Kate is already a bit […]

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The Climb

by Christine | Leave a Comment

Welcome to Fiction Friday. Every Friday I share with y’all a glimpse into the mind of Zach the Zombie and some of his friends. Last week, Zach found the perfect spot to climb the City wall. You know the drill–this is not really edited much. I appreciate your grace and forgiveness…   Trees look different from above. Everything looks different when you’re hanging thirty feet up a stone wall by your rotting fingertips. I glance up and wonder if this is going to work. My heart pumps just a little faster. Then I look down. Mistake. My head snaps back; I […]

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The Secret No One Tells You

by Christine | 12 Comments

…a manifesto for the discouraged   Recently, I posted these words: When you start chasing a dream, it’s new, it’s fresh. You feel inspired. You decide on a focus. You start a blog to share your dream with the world. You set a schedule. Word counts, posting goals. You tweet. You write. You watch as your traffic grows and you celebrate your tenth subscriber. There are hard times, too. There are days when you really just want to stay in bed, but you get up and you slog it out. There are days when the words don’t come easy. You […]

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Back To Our Previously Scheduled Dreaming

by Christine | 17 Comments

The Sloth has left the building. While the Week Of Sloth wasn’t quite as slothful as planned, it was a restful, restorative time, and I’m thankful to Mark, the girls, and God for aligning things to make it all work for my good. I needed it. But now it’s time to hustle again. It would be easy to settle into a routine of sleeping in, spending a nice long quiet time with a cup (or three) of coffee, watch the squirrels for a while, then putter around the house, root around on facebook, and spend a couple hours editing and […]

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