“As a kid, I was always creating things and using my imagination to make up characters,” said New Zealand writer Nick Fulton. “I had a paper route and I used to script a fake radio show and act it out as I rode around the neighborhood on my bike.”

Fulton has come a long way from the boy with the paper route and big dreams. He is now an accomplished writer, with a long list of achievements in his career.

“I’ve always enjoyed sitting down and tackling a really tough task, so I think that is where my love of writing comes from,” he said.

The real success started while Fulton was studying at Victoria University in Wellington in the early 2000s when a friend suggested starting a blog. He was then spurred on by others.

“His encouragement was what got me started, but I had another good friend who was a talented writer. Being able to share and talk about ideas with her gave me the confidence to pursue writing,” he described.

This motivation is what started Einstein Music Journal (EMJ),  New Zealand’s foremost music blog, from 2007 to 2012. EMJ went on to be a finalist in the Music category of Concrete Playground’s Blogger Awards in 2011, and was awarded Blog of the Week by Breakthru Radio in New York City in 2009.

“I like being part of a community of creative people. I’m lucky enough to have friends in Melbourne who also write creative fiction and longer editorial pieces, so I have a community of real-life and virtual friends. I’ve made great connections through writing, and when I traveled to the US in 2012 I was able to visit and stay with many of them. Those connections will last a lifetime.” he said. “Continuing to be a part of a supportive creative community is the most important thing for me.”

Fulton focuses on writing culture pieces, and telling stories that may not be told unless he writes them.

“The biggest challenge is often convincing an editor that there’s a decent story to be told. A lot of my writing is about unusual theories or themes that I think others will be interested in too. Some editors are happy to take a risk and trust my judgement, but it doesn’t always work out that way,” he described. “Right now, I’m lucky enough to be working with an excellent editor named Tim Scott, over at Noisey. He’s very good at assessing my ideas and finding a way to reposition them to appeal more broadly.”

Fulton has written multiple successful feature pieces for Noisey Australia/New Zealand, over the last year, and Scott describes him as being skilled, reliable and thorough music writer.

“His writing pitches and story ideas are fresh, engaging and presented with a keen understanding of the Noisey audience,” said Scott. “Work that I have commissioned to him has been submitted on time and with a level of quality and professionalism. I look forward to reading and publishing more of Nick’s work.”

Fulton’s versatility and talent lead him to stories no one has thought to write before. He describes one of his favorite pieces written for Cuepoint in 2015. He had heard a song on SoundCloud that sampled Eric Garner and his now infamous final words “I can’t breathe”, when inspiration struck.

“I was troubled by it, and I knew others would be too. I decided to speak with the musician who made the song and find out what motivated him to create it. He was very sincere and had the best intentions,” described Fulton.

Fulton’s writing is often recognized by other publications. Last year, he wrote an article for Pitchfork, which started a bigger conversation around people shooting pictures with their phones at gigs. The article received an excellent response on social media and a direct response to the article was published in The Village Voice.

“Jonathan Shecter, one of the co-founders of legendary hip hop magazine The Source once emailed me and told me he loved my writing. That was a pretty big moment. He emailed me in relation to a piece I’d self-published on Medium and asked to republish it on Cuepoint, a publication he currently runs that’s housed on the Medium platform,” said Fulton. “I ended up writing regularly for Cuepoint and wrote several features and a weekly review column.”

Fulton’s skillful writing was also recognized by Genevieve Callaghan, a writer for Smith Journal, a brother publication to Frankie. She reached out to him in the early stages of her career for guidance.

“Nick as a mentor helped me to refine my approach to becoming a published writer, clarifying and strengthening strategies that could bring me into closer contact with relevant publications, editors, and other writers. Having since written copy for inspiring institutions like The School of Life, Melbourne, and Parisian refugee organization, SINGA, I am now working as one of the main writers of online content for Smith Journal, and contributing regularly to the Smith Journal magazine. I attribute much of this professional success to Nick’s encouragement and counsel,” said Callaghan.

Fulton’s success in Australia and New Zealand has inspired him to move to the United States, and fully experience the culture here.

“Every kid that grew up in New Zealand in the 80s and 90s was surrounded by American culture. Many of the things I write about have an American element, or speak about someone based in the US, he said. “Some of my best writing has been for American publications like Pitchfork and CMJ, but the opportunity to write deeper, more thoughtful pieces only really comes with the lived experience. Living in Australia, it’s hard to get a true perspective on American culture.”

“My goal is to keep writing informative pieces that start conversations and get people thinking about those around them,” he concluded. “Adding something to the community and helping people share their own ideas is important too.”