Not many 17-year-olds can say they’ve written and published a novel, but senior Darcy Darbin of Middletown definitely can. Darbin released her first novel, “Hopeless,” on March 25, 2015.

Darbin, now 18, said she has been writing for the majority of her life.

“[In] early elementary school, I would write silly poetry all the time, and then it eventually turned into storytelling, which turned into just overall wanting to write a lot,” Darbin said.

Today, she writes a wide variety of genres in a variety of lengths, in both prose and verse.

“I wrote my novel … I do a lot of poetry … I have a lot of short stories in my repertoire. I also do a lot of nonfiction,” Darbin said. She is currently drafting a memoir about her high school experience.

“Hopeless” is a realistic fiction novel that follows a man as he loses the trust of his best friend and his own mental stability, Darbin said. The novel is available through Booktango and Amazon as either an e-book or a hard copy.

“The very second I finished it, I had this moment where I realized it was basically an allegory,” Darbin said. “I realized I injected a little piece of my personality into every single character totally subconsciously.”

Darbin said she finished writing the novel last December but stepped away from it for a little while before proofreading it. This process took about two months.

“I had to personally proofread it I think twice, and then I gave it to Mrs. Plumeri to proofread. She proofread the whole thing for grammar. She did an excellent job,” Darbin said.

Darbin makes $2 per book sold, but the book costs $10. She said this was a frustrating realization about creative writing. Darbin plans to continue to self-publish but said she won’t pursue writing as a full-time career.

“You can’t make it a mathematical thing. It’s a physical and metaphysical sensation you go through when you are writing something,” Darbin said.