I think this applies a long time ago to how things are read. The truth is more like...you only get zero shots today. So, you really need to go and find a director and a producer and bring "something" to life about your work.
I understand the perfectionist angle is separate in terms of ho people would look at the work. That no longer applies. Honestly, spellcheck and grammar check alone have changed in aways people can't even grasp from typewriter and word processor program days. Honestly, it is more of a "Corel" comment. If you don't get that...it's fine. But here's a better version of it. If you didn't fix it, you probably don't know how. That's really what producers are for. Writing specs is great and all. Writing originals is great and all.
You aren't trying to "write originals". You are trying to find a producer who has an idea or a mandate who wants to look at something you wrote and have you write the thing in their head. That's completely different today. It's either something they already optioned from someone else that you will be writing or you'll be writing this idea they have that fits such-and-such mandate.
Someone will undoubtably point out the ONE script that sold in the last two years that was an "original" :and I will be forced to point out that it was for a writer-director who did the work and found their own money.
You don't get one shot. You get zero. Someone can help you write the "one shot" from their work. Or their idea. Or the idea they bought. Or the book they read that just hit the public domain.
I used to use an NFL analogy to explain the sort of odds you are up against. That no longer applies. It's more like the NFL analogy with the odds of winning a Super Bowl mixed in.
So, as a screenwriter, you have to ask yourself: Am I prepared to go to Europe and navigate soccer vs football for a few years and figure out if I even know what I am talking about?
My $$ tally for the year is 3 features, a documentary and a pilot. My take-home pay this year is about -3,000.00 USD. I should have skipped one of the features because I could tell it was a scam when I signed on to produce it. I sort of knew this was the way the year was going to go and my producing partner is up a bunch of money so we aren't screwed yet. Hopefully, the doc invoices get paid and then I'll have made around $15,000 for the year.
And I love Goldman. I blame him for me getting into movies at all because one of the first producers I worked for loved him and I had read everything of his I could get my hands on. But you aren't Goldman. And Goldman is only Goldman because of his older brother. So, let's make the holidays tight and be really good to our older siblings. Wait...I am the oldest sibling. Fuck.