Anything more than a simple txt file will require conversion before Sigil can deal with it.
You can do this conversion in Calibre, or you can do it using one of the Import plugins available for use in Sigil.
But sure, if you write your book in un-formatted (apart from linefeeds) text and save as a TXT file you can drop it straight into Sigil and start learning about the subset of HTML markup that is EPUB.
You might learn more about this by looking at what Calibre (or one of the Sigil Inport plugins) creates and modifying it to your requirements. But that's your choice.
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