A Darker Shade of Green

by GarmadonJr

Aster was always second best. Second strongest, second smartest, second fastest, second bravest. But that was to be expected, what with the ninja so much older than her. She'd never met anyone her age before- where would you find another 10-year-old in a team of elemental ninja? But things change when she meets Lloyd, who's more powerful than he seems. Disclaimer- I only own Aster

9. An Author's Note

To all my faithful readers who are still reading this,

First of all, I'd like to thank you for your continued support and dedication to A Darker Shade of Green. I know I am terrible at updating, and there are multiple problems with this story, yet you strangely stubborn, wonderful people are still here.

Or I could be talking to thin air, but let's hope for the best.

If you've been reading since the beginning, you'll remember my irregular updating pattern and the long breaks I take between chapters. Alas, I live (at least partially) in the real world and I dedicate my time to things more material to fanfiction. One of those things includes reading professionally written and edited books.

So now I've come back to fanfiction with higher standards and a (hopefully) more orderly, less erratic writing style (even if my grammar refuses to improve). I came back with the intention of finishing and uploading Chapter 9, but after reading through what I had already written, including the previous eight chapters, I have come to the conclusion that the story I have written is simply not good enough.

I know there are some of you out there who absolutely love my pet story, given what I've read in the comments, but I'm sure you've noticed the many problems with Aster and my interpretations of the ninja. I've made them all one-dimensional. I've given them a strength and a weakness and called it a day. The only exception here is Aster, to whom I've given too many strengths.

Some of you got excited when I gave her the ability to talk to dragons, which branched off from her mastery of the wind. I love dragons too, and I can understand why you loved it so much. But dragonspeak has no place in Ninjago. A lot of the things I've done don't match with what should be happening in Ninjago.

In addition, I've essentially attached Aster to Ninjago with duct-tape. She's too artificially integrated into the team. There's too much about her that just doesn't fit.

However, I did not write this author's note to whine about the imperfections of my story. The purpose of this note is to make an announcement- I'm rewriting A Darker Shade of Green.

Yes, I know how impractical and irresponsible this seems. But I'd like a solid foundation to build the rest of the story on, and these first eight chapters aren't helping. I also feel like the story should be more deserving of all your wonderful comments.

I won't change everything. All I will do is fix circumstances, dialogue and characters to make them seem a little less forced, and perhaps deviate from Ninjago where I feel it doesn't make sense. The essential plotline will not change (Ninjago won't change, of course, but I mean the fillers I had planned).

What I plan to do is write the first ten chapters in one go, meaning I will rewrite the first eight and add the two next ones. I'll add all ten chapters to Fanfiction together, so you won't have to wait in between. The writing of the ten chapters will take some time, and I will not even try to guess how long. When the chapters are uploaded, I'll delete the old ones. I may also try to redesign the cover and change the description.

What all this will achieve is a new theme, for lack of a better word. I began this story just to note down my solution to Lloyd's forever-loneliness, but my goals have shifted. Seasons 1, 2, and 3 (counting the pilots as a season) to me, are about a group of kids growing up, maturing into a team of ninja ready to take down the evil in the world. I want to convey that in A Darker Shade of Green and expand beyond my original fangirl-y fantasies.

The thing I will regret most when deleting the old chapters is the consequent deleting of your reviews. I have read all the reviews posted on this fanfiction, even the ones I did not have time to thoroughly reply to.

Apologies to DovahkiinNightShift, GirlOfMyOwnWorld, and kame otaku, who took the time to comment on my fanfiction, but to whom I never replied to. An additional apology to guest reviewer MMM to whom I never replied to either. There may be more of you who I have unknowingly ignored, and I offer you my sincere apologies.

Despite my evident irresponsibility, there are also Fanfictioners who have persisted in sharing their opinions with me. While I value all of your comments, all positive comments that made me smile, I feel I need to name FirstFandomFangirl, MMM, Maniac at Mindnight, INFJwriter, and kame otaku (who even made fanart! OH MY GOODNESS FIVE MONTHS LATER AND I'M STILL FANGIRLING). If that's you reading this, I'd like to thank you again for your continued and undeserved support.

I know this probably isn't very impactful. I'm just a small-scale author who never updates, and has eight chapters and eighteen favourites. But for what it's worth, everyone reading this has my gratitude for their continued faith in A Darker Shade of Green.

So once again, thank you for your understanding, and sorry for being such a procrastinator,

GarmadonJr

P.S. Yes, I am working on Chapter 1 right now. I will not touch Minecraft until I have given what I owe you all.