The Structure of Chapters

I'm often asked how long a chapter should be within a novel.
Herewith is an answer taken from the book "Scene and Structure" by author Jack Bickman which should clear up the matter for you, especially if you are writting your first novel.

...unless your publisher has specified a desired length for his company's chapters, the length of a chapter is what you make it.
There is simply no ideal, model length for a chapter. The very division of novels into chapters is a wholly artificial convention that owes its existence in part to the needs of British publishers in the earliest days of the form: 

The greatest danger to success of your story is that the reader will put it down during the reading and then not pick it up again.  Where is the best place to put a book down?  At the end of a chapter. Therefore the guiding philosophy about chapter construction must be this:  Regardless of how long or short your chapters maybe, always end them at a point where the reader can't put the book down.
You should try to have some general norm for chapter length in any given manuscript - an average chapter being fourteen typewritten pages, for example.  But if dramaturgy suggests a chapter of only one page here and there as the best way to keep your reader hooked, don't be afraid to do it.
The best place to end a chapter is at the same place suggested as best for changing viewpoint: at the moment of disaster ending a scene.  The reasons are nearly the same as suggested for changing viewpoint at the disaster. 
Another good place to end a chapter is right in the middle of a conflict.
A chapter is not necessarily - and usually is not - composed of a single scene.  If you analyze published nov els, you will find threee, four or more scenes linked inside the arbritrary fencings of chapter headings.  You will also notice that the chapter endings are almostg always at the point that willmost strongly hook the reader into keeping on with the book and not putting it down at theend of the given chapter.
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A sub note from your feerless WGL on chapter endings. A chapter ending does not always have to show some type of disaster.  I've read loads of books which kept me turning the pages by simply leaving me something to ponder and wanting to know more.  Perhaps an uexpected guest has just arrived at the end of a scene wherein the reader will be anxious to see how the surprise visit will change the story, etc.  Study your favorite writer(s) and see how they deal with scene endings.  Now go end that scene you're working on. :)

Writer quotes for today:  "Writers are exorcists of their own demons" - Mario Vargas Llosa.
"How can you write if you can't cry?" - Ring Lardner