Instead of using variables such as $noun1, $noun2, etc., you might want to consider encapsulating the values in a hash ($hash{noun1}, $hash{noun2}, etc.) when reading them in. This would first of all keep your namespace cleaner, and secondly, would allow the foreach loop to be rewritten as

foreach (@story) {
    s/\[(.*?)\]/$hash{$1}/g;
    print;
}
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or, for more fun

map { s/\[(.*?)\]/$hash{$1}/g; print } (@story);
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The same effect could be achieved with the variable names you're reading into now, but would require the use of symbolic references, the use of which would probably get you dragged out into the street and shot here:)