Here's a nifty word meter!

When I participated in NaNoWriMo last year, I loved the word meter that was provided. It was linked to my NaNo word count page, so it always showed what I was currently at. I put the word meter in the sidebar of my blogs, and set it up so that it linked to my NaNo progress report. (Knowing HTML is a bonus if you do a lot of blogging and other online writing.)

I had thought that it would be pretty cool if I could find a word meter to use on projects other than NaNoWriMo, but until just the other day I had not found one. A day or two ago, though, I ran across another writer's website (albeit one that was apparently abandoned). Her website had a Zokutou word meter on it.

The Zokutou word meter is pretty simple, but it does what you need it to do. There are eight different color choices and a handful of different meter styles. The meter uses a colored bar to show how close you are to your goal, and posts exact word counts underneath.

These guys have also written what they call the "Zokutou clause" to NaNoWriMo. This is for previous NaNo winners who no longer need to prove that they can write 50,000 words of fiction in a month. If you would much rather finish a prior NaNo novel than start a new one from scratch, Zokutou supports your goal -- and they even give you buttons to display on your blog or website, just like NaNoWriMo does!