I feel like the industry has shifted almost entirely to "by reference only" or pay-to-play, but could be wrong. Back in the day - meaning, like, 9 or 10 years ago - I used to get plenty of responses. Now - crickets.
Just curious about other people's methods. I sometimes create beat sheets but every time I do I tend to veer from them quite drastically once the actual writing starts and as I discover things about the characters through their dialogue, so I've stopped doing that and something feels much better about just diving in. I'll always have, at minimum, though, a logline (of course) and a short plot synopsis to start with.
There's no "right" way, of course, but I'm curious about other people's approach, especially the professional / produced screenwriters in this group.