A lot of people have trouble distinguishing between an “idea” and a “story”, so I thought I’d provide a simple example.

An idea:

What if UFOs were real?

Expansion:

What if UFOs were real and they were stealing cats?

Closer to story:

What if UFOs were real and they stole your cat?

Story:

It’s always seemed like the only one in the world who understands me is my cat, Whitey. (Yeah, I know, a silly name but I was seven.) Now that Mom died, Whitey’s been with me all the time, purring, and demanding attention and he’s the only one I can let see me cry — Dad’s too much like a piece of marble and Bryan… ugh! Little Bryan would make some sort of annoying game out of it. And now, something’s woken me up and Whitey’s not curled up at the head of my bed… he’s not in my room… there’s some weird light from outside. I go to the window and look down… just in time to see Whitey being sucked up into the belly of a UFO!

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Now that’s really just the start of a story, it doesn’t tell what happens in the middle and how it ends. But as always, the start of a story kinda begs the rest of a story (why are UFOs stealing cats and will/how will our protagonist get Whitey back? Also, what about Dad and Brian, there’s clearly stuff going on there that needs “fixing”.)

But for those who are interested in the craft, I hope that helps.