Sub countWordsSpecial()
    wholetext = ActiveDocument.range(Selection.range.start, Selection.range.End)

    While InStr(wholetext, Chr(13))
        wholetext = Replace(wholetext, Chr(13), " ")
    Wend

    While InStr(wholetext, "  ")
        wholetext = Replace(wholetext, "  ", " ")
    Wend

    Dim arr() As String
    arr() = Split(wholetext, " ")

    Dim tmp As String
    Dim wordcount As Long
    braceDepth = 0
    wordcount = 0
    For Each element In arr()
        tmp = element
        If (Not "" = tmp) Then
            If StartsWith(tmp, "[[") Then
               braceDepth = braceDepth + 1
            ElseIf EndsWith(tmp, "]]") Then
               braceDepth = braceDepth - 1
            ElseIf (braceDepth = 0) Then
                wordcount = wordcount + 1
            End If
        End If
    Next element

    MsgBox wordcount
End Sub

Public Function EndsWith(str As String, ending As String) As Boolean
     Dim endingLen As Integer
     endingLen = Len(ending)
     EndsWith = (Right(Trim(UCase(str)), endingLen) = UCase(ending))
End Function

Public Function StartsWith(str As String, start As String) As Boolean
     Dim startLen As Integer
     startLen = Len(start)
     StartsWith = (Left(Trim(UCase(str)), startLen) = UCase(start))
End Function