use the escape character to stop
~{{{ 
nowiki blocks from being
nowiki blocks
}}}

~* escape lists

* you can also
~* escape the second list item

~= escape a heading

~: escape an indented paragraph

escape a horizontal line
~-----

~| escape a | table
~| r2c1 | rc2c |

~{{{
escape nowiki ** with bold in it **
}}}

~; escape definition lists
~: like so

you can also escape inline markup 
like ~** bold ~**, ~// italics~//, ~\\ newlines, 
~[[ links ]], ~{{images}}, etc