Character as Plot. Coincidence, Mystery and Surprise. The payoff and the appearance of inevitability. A character with a problem.
Every story is about a character trying to deal with some sort of difficulty.
Characters who have happy lives, who are content with their lot, and who have achieved their goals are not good fodder for fiction. The people we read about are people in trouble. The central problem. Most genre stories can be thought of as revolving around some central problem, or problems. Whatever the length you're dealing with, short story or novel, you want to begin with a character in crisis.