Perl Version
code everything to perl 5.005_03
POD Documentation
Use the boilerplate examples; document data-structures
Comments
Use self-documenting code,
eg; my $story_count = 0; instead of my $sc = 0; # story count
Warnings and Strict
Always use Warnings and Strict
the Slash module has turned off the Use of uninitialized variable warning globally
might be a good idea, might not; it's annoying if undefs are valid values.