In it's simplest form, creating an item just requires the project_id in the path parameters. You will usually want to set at least a name, and one of template_id OR structure (but not both).
You can also set a workflow status_id, a folder_uuid and position to set where in the hierarchy of existing items the new item should be placed (the default is appended to the existing items in the project root folder).
You can optionally set the content for the item too, which is an array of objects for every field you want to set the content for. Each object must contain a uuid (which matches a field uuid from the items template or custom structure) and content, which is where the raw HTML, text or other content should go.
For a full guide on creating an item with structure see: Creating an item with structure
Encoding HTML Content
When pushing content to an item, it's important that any content is HTML Entity Encoded; this is to ensure that the request is not blocked by our firewall which can identify some mark up or characters as being potentially malicious.