I must strongly disagree with the advice to start with one-liners in perl! By all means, write full scripts, even if they fail. You will find they are a lot easier to debug using simple techniques like the judicious use of print statements and such than trying to figure out what went wrong with a one-liner.
The fact that you are using strictures is a very good sign and they will point you to what might be wrong.
It helps to remember that the primary goal is to drain the swamp even when you are hip-deep in alligators.