Tatiana is right, it's hard to explain this concept in one paragraph.
Generally speaking,
НСВ verbs are used to talk about facts, repeated actions (emphasising that they happen several times, but not emphasising whether they had any results) and processes (without emphasising the result, but rather emphasising the duration). Also they are used in denial more often than СВ.
Whereas СВ verbs are used to talk about results or emphasising that the action:
- was finished
- happened only once
- sometimes we use СВ to emphasise the beginning of the action.
This is very general concept, I'm sure colleagues will add more info for you:) Here are examples:
Маша сейчас готовит пиццу. - НСВ, process
Маша приготовила пиццу - СВ, result (the pizza is ready)
Вчера Маша приготовила пиццу - СВ, one-time action. Probably Masha cooks often, but here we're talking only about that particular occasion.
Маша готовила пиццу - НСВ, fact. (we don't know whether she got till the end or stopped in the middle of the process OR the result is just not important in our story)
Маша часто готовит пиццу - НСВ, emphasising that the action is repeated.
Маша не готовит - denial, usually used with НСВ.