As a follow-up to my original post, below is how the code for that same program looks now. I'm posting it here in case someone else wants to convert to modules and want to see how that would look. Thanks again for all of the advice everyone gave me. I'm still incorporating your ideas.

#!/usr/bin/perl

# program name:  musings.cgi

# set libraries, scripts, & paths
use strict;
use warnings;
use library::core;
use library::musings;
use CGI qw(:standard);

my $scripts = core::get_script_variables();
my $script = $scripts->{'musing'}->{'script'};
my $top_script = $scripts->{'musings'}->{'script'};

# capture user input
my $musing_id = param('musing_id') || '';
my $ref_id = param('ref_id') || '';

# check if user data is complete
if($musing_id =~ m|\d|g) {
   print redirect($script . '?musing_id=' . $musing_id);
   exit;
}

# get general text for web page
my $general_text = core::get_general_text('musings',1);
my ($page_heading,$page_text,$page_image) = @{$general_text->[0]};
my $n = "\015\012";

# get web log entry
my $entries = musings::get_musings_entries($ref_id);
my $comments_cnt = musings::get_comments_cnt();
my $musing_stats = musings::get_reader_stats();
my $musing_cats = musings::get_musings_cats();

# alter heading if musing category selected
if($ref_id) {
   $general_text = core::get_general_text('musings_category',1);
   ($page_heading,$page_text,$page_image) = @{$general_text->[0]};
   $page_heading = ucfirst($musing_cats->{$ref_id}->{'ref_name'}) . $p
+age_heading;
}


# web page
core::heading($page_heading,undef,$page_text);

core::panel_start(1);
core::fiction();
core::miscellany();
core::musings_sites();
core::panel_end();

core::panel_start(2);  
core::page_heading($page_heading,$page_text,undef);
    
# display musing entries
foreach (@$entries) {
  my ($id, $ref_id, $log_head, $entry, $entry_date) = @$_;
  my $cat = lc($musing_cats->{$ref_id}->{'ref_name'});
  my $cnt = $comments_cnt->{$id}->{'comments_cnt'} || 'no';
  my $reader_stat = $musing_stats->{$id}->{'stat'};
  $entry_date = lc($entry_date);

  print div({class=>'content_item'}, $n,
        div({class=>'musing_abstract'}, $n, 
        h3(a({href=>$script . '?musing_id=' . $id}, $log_head) ), $n,
        span($entry), $n ), $n,
        
        div({class=>'item_stats'}, $n,
        'posted:', $entry_date, '; readers: ', $reader_stat, '; ', $n,
        a({id=>'cmt_note', href=>$script . '?musing_id=' . $id}, 
        $cnt, 'comments'), $n,
        'category: ', 
        a({id=>'cmt_note', 
        href=>$top_script . '?ref_id=' . $ref_id}, $cat) ), $n ), $n;
}
    
core::panel_end();  

core::panel_start(3);  
core::display_page_image($page_image);
musings::get_display_category_data();
core::stats_musings();
core::panel_end();  

core::footer();  

exit;
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