Following graduation, he served a volunteer mission in Illinois for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

[1] He began writing in 1985 during college,[3] publishing the short story "The Sky Is an Open Highway" in the fall 1985 issue of The Leading Edge.

He wrote under his own name at the beginning of his career, changing to the pseudonym David Farland in the mid-1990s with the release of the first Runelords book.

Wolverton chose the pseudonym in order to have a name more fitting for a Fantasy author and so his physical books would be shelved closer to customers' eye levels in bookstores, rather than on lower shelves as the last name Wolverton had.

[15] He taught other writers such as Brandon Mull, Jessica Day George, Eric Flint, Stephenie Meyer, James Dashner, as well as others.

In 1998, Wolverton started working part-time at Saffire Studios, helping create video games.

He was responsible for the concept of "lurkers" in the well-known RTS (Real-time strategy) game Starcraft: Brood War.

[20] On January 13, 2022, Wolverton suffered from a fall, resulting in a severe head injury and a hemorrhagic stroke.