Have you researched the length of chapters in successful contemporary novels?
In the best-selling novels I have studied, it appears there is a standard length of between twelve and fifteen pages. There are exceptions, but not many exceed that length. If this is the publishing industry standard then we should take note.
However, the best-selling, award-winning author, Sharon Creech, of Walk Two Moons, The Wanderer, and Bloomability fame, has chapters that are a quarter, a half or three quarters of a page. And one of her chapters is only one sentence.
It is rare for chapters to be longer than fifteen pages. Those that are twenty plus pages, are usually split by two landmarks.
I believe a chapter should only be as long as what you have to say, and no longer, but fifteen pages or less seems reasonable.
I aim for 3k words, which seems short compared to other posters. I found it's a good length to read and keeping it in mind helps reduce my tendency to waffle on without getting anywhere.
Having said that, chapters do end up longer (or shorter) and it's true you need to write to the end of the scene.
My chapters have been on average 4000-4300 words so far, though I'm thinking the one I'm currently writing will be a little shorter. I've printed out chapter 1 and it is just over 12 double spaced pages.
I did look into chapter length on similar novels so I have a rough idea, but unless my chapters end up very short or very long, I'm happy for them to be the length they have to be to complete the scene.
That is an interesting theory, ASC.
I never planned for my first as yet unpublished novel. There was no structure to my writing. It was a loose collection of episodes which were mostly poorly written. I refer to them fondly, as enthusiastic drivel. I wasted two years of determined effort, but I was not deterred, because I had something to say.
I am not sure where the compulsion to write comes from. But I believe the sub-conscious mind is the key. If you are creative then you have an advantage, but paradoxically no-one was born a journalist. Creative writing can be taught. But it is original ideas that bring success.
If budding-authors do not plan for their novels with a beginning, middle, or end, they usually make a start from somewhere in the middle sections of their yet to be completed first draft. I believe the original idea for a novel comes from the conscious mind, and that subsequent ideas and solutions, manifest from the sub-conscious.
I do not believe it is the sub-conscious mind that determines the length of a chapter or section. It is a conscious decision to stop writing, and usually through fatigue. However, our conscious and sub-conscious mind, may urge us to revisit earlier chapters to add to and edit accordingly.