I remember Writing Down The Bones from a freshman writing seminar I had to teach back in the day. I wanted to throw it out the window! I don't think I had a single student in three semesters say they liked it. I'm relieved to hear someone found it useful!

I'm more a proponent of Robert Hass, who went on retreat with the aim of only writing one paragraph a day. Just the one. He felt that by meditating and focusing on a small portion each day, he could better hone his craft. For me, thinking smaller has been more successful in producing high-caliber work than writing all over the place. Too much burns me out! >_<"

But I too try to write as though it's only for myself and will never see the light of day. Doing so can lend a really intimate quality to the pacing and tone of a piece.