I had used two textboxs.one for entering text and another textbox is used to display number of characters
enterd.
Select you textbox choose events.In events double click on 'TextChanged' Event and write the below code.
if (txtmessage.Text.Length > 0)
{
txtcount.Text = txtmessage.Text.Length.ToString();
}
else
txtcount.Text = Convert.ToString(0);
The Desing of Windows form

In form1.cs the complete code is written as follows
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace counttextusingevent
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void txtmessage_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (txtmessage.Text.Length > 0)
{
txtcount.Text = txtmessage.Text.Length.ToString();
}
else
txtcount.Text = Convert.ToString(0);
}
}
}