I don't think most of my written works are old enough to properly analyze; there isn't much to look back on as I still remember what was going through my head as I wrote it. And it's hard to really take much away from them on my own, besides the failings of the piece and what I could've done better. One exception is this unfinished story I wrote in middle or high school about extradimensional pirates; there's a part where the captain is angrily ranting/yelling about something, and the descriptions of his bodily gestures and movements felt very vivid and fun to read.
Analysis and comments from someone else, on the other hand, is what usually causes me to look at my stories in a new light. Prismatrix01 left a comment on "Me, My Sword, and I", saying that the overall theme of "being more than what you're made for" is similar to The Iron Giant, which hadn't even considered before but agree wholeheartedly! (I also didn't realize MMSaI even had a theme). A lot of the comments on "A Hole Dug With a Rabbit's Foot" also caused me to look at the whole article differently: Maxyfran73 described the story as unfocused but that it felt earned, which caused me to reflect on the way I handled all the moving parts of the piece; LAN 2D and swordlover87 said the setting feels very well lived-in, and that made me think about how I view fictional settings in the first place. And there was something this one person said about it in a discord server, that really… it made me actually like what I wrote:
"surreal, and atmospheric; almost like a fever dream but enjoyable"
Something about this… it reminded me of another author's works, specifically the way they made me feel while reading them. Maybe I'm arrogant for seeing this comment as an indirect comparison, but if I'm able to create something that has a similar effect on people, it makes me want to continue writing for as long as I can.
Oh! Actually, looking back on Rabbit's Foot, the time constraint of the contest really made the piece better than it otherwise would have been; forced me to shorten certain parts or remove others that would've ended up just being fluff.