Iris Yamashita: On Letting Go of Perfection

Iris Yamashita is an Academy Award–nominated screenwriter for the movie Letters from Iwo Jima. She has been working in Hollywood for 15 years developing material for both film and streaming, has taught screenwriting at UCLA, and is an advocate of women and diversity in the entertainment industry. She has also been a judge and mentor for various film and writing programs, and lives in California. Find her on Facebook and Instagram.

In this post, Iris discusses the process of writing her new mystery novel, City Under One Roof, why writers shouldn’t worry about being perfect in their first drafts, and more!

Name: Iris Yamashita
Literary agent: Lucy Carson, The Friedrich Agency
Book title: City Under One Roof
Publisher: Berkley Publishing
Release date: January 10, 2023
Genre/category: Mystery, Women Sleuths, Suspense Thrillers
Elevator pitch for the book: Cara Kennedy, a female detective, tries to solve a murder in a tiny Alaskan town where all the full-time residents live in a single high-rise building. When a blizzard and avalanche closes the single-lane tunnel, the only land route to the city, she becomes trapped in this locked-city mystery and everyone, including Cara, has secret motives for being there.

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Originally, I was thinking of writing it as a series for streaming media and after spending so much time thinking about a pitch and thinking about the characters, I thought I had enough to write a book.

The inspiration was the real isolated town of Whittier, Alaska, which was a place that had always been in the back of my mind for over 20 years. When I started thinking of setting a murder mystery there, I watched a video driving through the two-and-a-half-mile one-way tunnel, and it made me think of falling through a rabbit hole through which I would end up in a strange Wonderland filled with odd characters. Then the pieces started to come together.

I started formulating the story in 2014 and then started writing the book in 2018, so eight years from the original idea for a series and four years from actually starting to write a book in my spare time.

I feel like I learn something new every day in terms of the publishing process. I’m coming in green. What goes into marketing and publicity, for instance, is amazing. I’m definitely glad to have people holding my hand on that aspect, and it has been a warm and welcoming process so far.

I had never written a mystery story before, although the idea of a mystery was appealing and, of course, there are numerous films and stories that are mysteries that I highly enjoyed. But I hadn’t watched any procedural shows or regularly read mysteries such as Agatha Christie, or any modern-day mystery series, so I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to actually write one.

While I wouldn’t say it was an easy process, it was a nice surprise to find out how much I enjoyed writing the book and in the genre.

Foremost, I hope they enjoy the read and are engaged by the story and characters to the end. For story nerds like myself, I also hope there will be some people who are able catch a few of the numerous “Alice in Wonderland” references layered in.

On a more serious note, I tried to spotlight the very real problem of the high rates of violence against women in Alaska.

Try not to be too precious or make things perfect on the first go. Things will change and you will have to learn to know when to let go of things. That’s why I always start off with something I call a “vomit draft,” whether it’s in screenwriting or writing novels, because I know a lot of things are going to be thrown out later.

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