How to Start a Story?

I am guessing that mostly everyone on /book/ is a writer so, how should I start writing a story? And what makes any story "addicting"?

If you're having problems getting a beginning, or intro, down on paper, skip the fucker.  It might surprise you, but starting at a point 'near' the beginning often leads to a more well defined and congruent idea on how it should read and feel.

Remember, it's an intro, not an abstract. 

If you plan on starting at page one and writing linearly to the end, you're doomed to fail... well, unless your the next Twain.  But I, and most likely yourself, doubt that.

Try putting together a sort of flow-chart.  which would contain: major plot shifts, character ties to one-another, flow of time, potential twists, alternate plot courses (Writing a story, changes the story. Heisenberg defined more than physics), and lastly define, in words, what emotions the reader 'should' be feeling at that moment.

If you can come up with something you're happy with, well fuck. That's more progress than writing 50 pages one day, only to delete 40 the following day.

Happy writing.  Remember, fuck the reader.  You're writing for you, if someone comes along and enjoys it as well, bonus.