If performance isnt an issue, one trick i use is to read the sql in from a file.

another trick i use to line up my sql and make it look nice in the code (when i embed it) is concatenation

I also package up my dbi stuff into a couple of subbies, one for selecting, and one for insert, update, delete, and do all the appropriate error checking (ie DB alive, uname/pwd ok et al). I also pass all the params as anon hashes.

Its not amazing code, buts its functional, and works for me.

It also means, once i've written my dbi subbies, i dont need to go about writing dbi stuff again, just remember the parameters that must be parsed.. :-)