I'm not sure why chapter length should be so bothersome. Certainly for 'literary fiction' it seems not to matter. I've read novels with very few chapters of greatly varying length. The length fits in with the movements of the story.

For other genres, the advice of taking note of what others do seems pretty sound.

It may be that chapter length helps you to plan and implement your own day to day writing work, in which case just go ahead and think of a chapter as 1000 words or 3000 or whatever you can comfortably produce at a time. But be prepared to push these together or split them up once it gets close to a final draft.

well the first half of the book is with poor description, but i've made up for it with lot's of descriptive action scenes, in the second quarter it has a LOT of monologues and explainations... but i make up for all of that in the latter half.

plus the sequel is more descriptive, that and the third in he series is further descriptive (i reckon one of these days i'll write a book of decent description!)

A good guide to this is the Harry Potter books. If you analyse the first, say, it has 17 chapters, with each matching Joseph Campbells (Hero With A Thousand Faces) hero's journey structure. It's a good guide to number, length and content.

Other good guides to the hero's journey paradigm are Christopher Vogler's Writer's Journey and Kal Bashir's Hero's Journey/Transformation through a New World, State. Kal's, especially, is great for content.

I recommend reading all of these. Each has unique insights. Missing out any of the above will leave you with gaps.

Joseph Campbells (Hero With A Thousand Faces) is very hard going (lots of archaic language). You will put it down many times but it's worth sticking with it.

they are some great ideas, i'll be sure to look in them, thanks.
also for my first book, i lined out my ideas and then labelled the chapters and used the typical human memory so i could keep track of how far the storyline has developed, using this tactic, i managed to eventually write my first book, and honestly people talk about how (in my opinion) the worst part is excellent!

i can't wait until they get to the good part

i am trying to write a book and i have a problem with chapters i just write until i come to a natural end like you said you do but they always are no bigger than a page do you think that OK

Well, there's no golden rule, but I'd say it pretty much depends on what kind of book you're writing. For example, if you're writing some hard sci-fi, the kind of readers you're going to be aiming your book will probably be prepared to read chapters which are 15,000, 20,000 words long. If you're writing a thriller, on the other hand, any chapters over 5,000 words in length are probably going to be too long, running your target market's attention spans ragged.

As for how many chapters, well; personally, I'd say however many chapters you need to get a smooth, flowing plot. Not a chapter more, not a chapter less. If you're really in tune with your book, and you've played out every part of it in your mind, you'll know when that is... (That said- a few established authors might be able to get away with it, but literary tomes longer of 150,000 words aren't really in vogue nowadays. Let common sense prevail...)

Alex, it sounds like you are talking about scenes rather than chapters. If they really are only a page then perhaps you might consider having two or more 'scenes' in a chapter. But then if you're writing a children's book, especially one aimed at a younger age, then a page is probably long enough.