This is a companion piece to: The Queen is Dead. Long Live the Queen!.

Or, how to react to a bombshell announcement. No TL;DR blog posts, no melodramatic hair-pulling, no April Fools Day jokes, and no backpedalling. Here are five tips:

Relax — it’s not the end of the world.

Just recently — one of my favorite authors passed away; although I was saddened by that fact I did not feel the need to make an overly tearful blog post about her passing. That’s life, and the world will keep on turning — you will find new authors to love, new directors to watch out for, and new cosplay idols to kiss the ground they walk on.

So stop for a moment, take a deep breath, and — I say this with genuine concern, log out of Blogspot before you make a fool of yourself.

If you need to mourn, keep it private.

It will be more heartfelt and meaningful that way. Honestly, nobody needs to see you grieve all over the bleeping internet. It cheapens the emotion — it makes it look like you’re using the situation to pump hits into your blog. Lastly, if the announcement turns out to be false, you won’t end up with egg on your face ❤

If you feel that speaking about loss will bring you closure, limit it to a few sentences.

I personally suggest not longer than a single paragraph. Anything longer will make you look like a blubbering idiot, and your post will be ripe for flamers and trolls. The large wall of text will also discourage anyone actually sympathetic for your loss from reading your thoughts. Short and succinct — that’s the key!

Don’t quit doing what you love, even in the face of loss.

Will you quit your biggest passion — wearing skimpy outfits and lipsynching to pop music, just because the Spice Girls called it quits? You don’t! You find a new idol to emulate — Ashlee Simpson, Ke-dollar sign-ha, or Rebecca Black, and keep on rocking!

You never know — they might just take back the announcement, and it will be happy tiemz once again.

Perspective, perspective, perspective.

One of my favorite commentators said on a previous post: “Nothing is forever.” Keep this piece of advice in mind the next time you find a post on a rumour blog or social networking site that Chris Nolan is quitting directing, that Goku is dead, or that lolicon hentai is banned in Tokyo. The only thing constant is change.