Photo by Travis Pratt Screenwriter Paul Castro speaks to Career and Technology Center students Monday afternoon in the Television/Multimedia program in Frederick.

Screenwriter Paul Castro likes to tweak that a little bit.

"Write about what you know hurts," he told students Monday in the Career and Technology Center's TV and multimedia production program.

"If you explore that pain, if you get to the belly of the beast that is that pain, you'll have the keys to the castle as an artist."

The writer of the script for "August Rush," which starred Robin Williams, was invited to the center by his nephew Anthony Castro, a student in the program.

Castro paced around the room and involved students in his talk. He asked for two volunteers to participate in a paper airplane competition. He told the two students to make a plane of any design, and to use as many sheets of paper as needed.

When they were finished creating, he told them to hit the rear wall with their planes.

One student's plane went about two-thirds of the distance, while the other's went just a few feet before circling back to him.

Then Castro sprang in to action.

"The instruction was simply to make a paper airplane, using as much paper as was needed, right?" Castro said.

He then wadded a piece of paper in to a ball and threw it, hitting the back wall.

"There's my airplane," Castro said. "What does that say to you?"

"Think outside the box," one student said.

"Be creative," another said.

"Exactly," Castro said. "Think outside the box -- think beyond what you know."

He told the students to tap into their creative genius, face their fears and embrace the pain they have experienced over their lives, because emotion and feelings sell stories.

"In Hollywood, they don't buy screenplays, they buy emotion," Castro said.

The screenwriter was one of six children, he told students. He was abandoned by his mother on three different occasions. That feeling of abandonment stayed with him. It was the inspiration for "August Rush," about an abandoned kid trying desperately to reconnect with his parents.

"Think about those places in your life you've been -- and we all have them, you're not alone," Castro said. "You use that pain to create, and you end up helping other people -- your work makes them realize they aren't alone either."

Castro grew up in Potomac. He attended a Catholic grade school, where he had Sister Eileen, a "tougher than nails" teacher who served as the inspiration for "Eileen's Ice," an upcoming film starring Shirley McLaine.

It's another example of writing what he knows, and digging deep to explore personal experience.

Castro told the students they are lucky to have a program like CTC's.

"You have to have discipline -- learn your craft," he said. "You have an amazing opportunity here."

He received his master's degree from UCLA and sits on the school's admissions board. He told the students that the education they receive at CTC could possibly give them an advantage when it comes to applying for college.

Adam Frank, TV/multimedia teacher, was grateful for Castro's visit.

"It was a unique opportunity -- here's someone talking to them who's made it in a tough business," Frank said. "And he was such a real person, he really related to the students."

Castro told students that it's all right to not be terrific in math or science, and that people have different strengths and abilities.

"If you get anything from today, I want it to be that it's OK to be extraordinary," he said. "You don't have to settle for mediocrity."