Hoping to begin writing fiction again, I keep trying to find a site I saw long ago that was all about Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and the funny rules he had for screenwriting. I'm wondering if maybe I am remembering it wrong and the site was this one: TVTropes.org.

I like the site TVTropes.org, but wish it could be pared down on every single page. People can join to write sections on it, but all the users chiming in are all trying so hard to give each motif a clever name, that it gets tiresome to read.

However, I like the ideas of some of the themes, especially the Time Travel Tropes.

For instance: It is basically the law that if a character travels back in time and does something he shouldn't, when he comes back to the present, Hitler will have won WWII. No matter what tiny thing the Time Traveler did -- Nazi Victory! Everything leads to a Nazi Victory...

And there's this thing about Time Travel and the dangers posed by Butterflies. One flaps its wings at the wrong time, and all time is changed (Nazi Victory!) Or if you go back to the Past and step on a butterfly, you'll change the present horribly (again, Nazi Victory!)
But in the movie A Wonderful Life, George Bailey himself is the Butterfly. His absence or presence is what changes everything.

Although that isn't really a Time Travel movie. But it's a status-quo change movie.
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I remember reading about motifs D.H. Lawrence liked to put in his novels, such as one involving the Epic Hero, or One Who Returns From The Dead. Professors like to bring that one out with the novels The Virgin & The Gypsy, and.. oh, really, I can't remember others of his. But it seems like in literature, everybody and his brother's an epic hero; I could make a list yards long, ranging from Jesus to Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Most of the characters on Buffy are epic heroes, they're all coming back from the underworld with messages or extra knowledge to impart. Not hard since they're mostly supernatural beings. Coming back from the dead is their job.

I've read so little fiction lately I feel like I'm missing vitamins. The only books I've read lately were old pulp novels from the 30s. And tried to start reading a Tom Swift book.