I also wanted to ask, how do I avoid short chapters? I find that my writing is very compact, so I'm having trouble writing to fill the space.
And does anyone resort to filler material to fill their chapters sometimes? What is considered filler material? Is it background information or dialogue that exists to explain the characters a little more or something like that?
Firstly, you're also looking at a VERY first draft. Don't worry about how long or short the chapters come out to be, and don't get too caught up in how compact your writing is. This is the stage where you get the WHOLE story out. Start to finish. That is, once you start the actual writing it is. If you don't have a clear idea of where you're taking it (i.e. A) Boy is abducted into mysterious segment of society. B) Boy learns the ways of mysterious segment of society. C) Boy grows up, and excels/is mediocre/has piss poor skills managing the system. D) Sub-plot: Love interest. E) Antagonist shows up to spoil everyone's fun. F) Hero uses his skills to defeat Antagonist/with the support of his friends, Hero manages to subdue Antagonist/Hero can do little to stop Antagonist, but learns that he has never been alone, and through the aid of his friends, he manages to contribute to saving the day. Etc.) then you have to be willing to step back when necessary and work out the next step. If that changes what you need in the beginning, try to make a note of it rather than trying to go back and re-write it all on the spot.
A first draft can be a few paragraphs per page sketching out for you what you want the story to be. Honestly, it doesn't need to be anything fancy, and shouldn't be expected to be anything fancy, because if it falls short of your expectations of what it "should" be ("should" being entirely self imposed), you'll never finish a thing. Editing is when you need to worry about chapter length, writing style, the voice of the main character(s), and filler.
I mention filler, because you brought it up. Filler, as was mentioned by Robin Goodfellow, is a bad thing. A very bad thing. Because what the reader gets out of it is the sense that you had a short story to tell, and forced in useless things to make up some length requirement, self-imposed or otherwise. You call it a novel now, but a story will be as long as it's meant to be, and that might be a novella for all you know right now. Allow it to be what it will, and it may even turn out to encompass so much that it needs to be a trilogy instead. You never know until you get there, and you won't get there unless you actually let yourself write the story out in the first place.
