I love learning about writing. I love how there’s “theory” for creative processes. Makes me laugh when it all gets winnowed down to a base formula. That said, the TV Trope website is great for looking up things which have been done to death as well as learning new phrases for old ideas.
Here, a designer named James Harris uses the TV Tropes site and ideas to give us the basic building blocks with his Periodic Table of Storytelling. If you need inspiration for a new piece of fiction, all you have to do is combine elements like a chemist and add your own spin to things. It’s like alchemy when it works.
Of course, when it doesn’t, no harm no foul, right? You learned something in the process. And hopefully, you had fun doing it.
Getting the Hang of Thursdays 
When I first saw this, I thought you were referencing Michael Swanwick and his collection of short stories using each element from the periodic table. I especially liked the Xenon story.
http://periodictableofsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2009/10/xenon.html
Great story 🙂