Lately I've been watching lots of classic horror and sci-fi standards, including Rod Serling's "Twilight Zone". Some of those old stories are so good and so simple.
There aren't many elements in a Twilight Zone episode. It seems there are, at most, two concepts. There's the spacey element that provides the weirdness factor. And there's usually a character flaw driving the tale -- greed, avarice, fear, or a clawing for power or social status. That's it, just the two things.
But perhaps I should say there is another element, a silent one. It is the starkness of every scene. The best often have only one set: a room, a doctor's office, a car, a hotel room. Of course, it's just a half-hour show and you can only cram so many sets into that sliver of time. But it's more than that. The starkness is actually a player in the story. Against this purposely drab, minimalist background, the story can light up the night like a neon sign.
One or two characters, one idea, and one or two sets. Just let your story roll to its conclusion with nothing in its way. It's a good formula with a lesson for fiction writers, and it's one they've heard before: less is more.
