Resolving Google Manual Spam Action

Fellow Warriors

Need some expert advise. My primary business site has been penalized by Google with Manual spam action for unnatural links and the rankings have been severely affected since last October. I've been doing the analysis on the backlinks and I'm about to raise the reconsideration request. I expect a few weeks or even months before I can get the penalty removed if at all it happens.

My questions are the following

1. Should I wait for the removal of the penalty before I start active link building on the same domain again?
2. Should I get another domain (.co or .net) and work on it since it could take some time before the issue is resolved? The primary domain is only 2 years old anyway and is not ranking for any of my keywords now. I'm planning to do a lot of content marketing on my blog and so wouldnt want to waste my time and effort if that wont help a penalized site
3. Finally if I redirect the secondary domains (.co or .net) to the primary one, will it create an issue again since the primary is penalized?

Your valuable inputs will be much appreciated. Thanks