We know that NA was written early as it was sold to a publisher in 1803 but never published after all. It was the first of her novels to sell. It was bought back from the publisher Benjamin Crosby & Co in 1815 or 16 when JA had the 10 pounds she needed to buy it back. She did some work on it but wrote her niece Fanny Knight in 1817 'Miss Catherine is put upon the shelf for the present, and I do not know that she will ever come out' MP wasnt even started until maybe 1812. This all comes from Deidre Le Faye but I have several Austen biographies that say pretty much the same thing. In any case she did work on the book late in life so we can assume her attitude about novels had not changed too much.